Preventing password saving in the Finder

Overview

Saving the password of login sessions in the Finder may be a convenient feature for users to avoid typing their password again and again. However, for security reasons, you may want to enforce a policy of making password input mandatory, especially if the users share the workstations that they use to log in to the Finder.

Starting from V6.18, it is however more convenient and secure to enable Windows authentication of Finder and Portal users. From V6.21 on, SAML authentication of users enables other corporate single-sign on options. Whenever possible, prefer a corporate single sign-on solution based on either SAML or Windows authentication of users to preventing password saving using the method described below.

Procedure

The Finder reads a key in the Windows registry to know whether to allow users to save their password or not. If the value of the key is set to 1, the Finder hides the options Remember password and Sign me in automatically in the login dialog.

To prevent users from saving their password in Finder sessions:

1. In the computer where the Finder is installed, press Win(key)+R to display the run dialog.

2. Type in regedit as the program to open in the dialog and press Enter. The Registry Editor opens.

3. Browse the Windows registry in the Registry Editor and select the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Nexthink.

   • If the key does not exist, create it by right-clicking the SOFTWARE folder:

     1. Select New -> Key from the context menu.

     2. Type in Nexthink as the name of the new key.

     3. Right-click the area on the right-hand side of the Registry Editor that holds the list of values for the key.

     4. Select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value from the context menu.

     5. Type in preventUsersFromSavingPassword as the name of the value.

4. Right-click the value with the name preventUsersFromSavingPassword to change its data.

5. Select Modify... in the context menu. The dialog to edit the value shows up.

6. Set the value of the field Value data to 1 in the dialog.

7. Click OK.

This method changes the value of the registry key in one computer only. Alternatively, you can use GPO to impose the same value for the registry key in all the computers where the Finder is installed.

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RELATED TASK

• Logging in to the Finder

• Enabling Windows authentication of users

• Enabling SAML authentication of users