PasswordPolicyViolation
AWS PasswordPolicyViolation means the provided password does not satisfy the active IAM account password policy (HTTP 400).
Last reviewed: February 3, 2026|Editorial standard: source-backed technical guidance
What Does Password Policy Violation Mean?
IAM rejected the password operation because the submitted credential violates active account password policy rules, so user create/reset flow halts until policy-compliant input is used.
Common Causes
- -Submitted password does not satisfy active IAM password policy constraints.
- -Password generator uses outdated complexity/length rules.
- -Password history or reuse restrictions block the change request.
- -Account policy changed but automation still targets old constraints.
How to Fix Password Policy Violation
- 1Fetch current account password policy and validate candidate password locally.
- 2Generate a password that satisfies all active policy constraints.
- 3Update identity workflows to use current password-policy rules.
- 4Retry the password operation with policy-compliant credentials.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis for Password Policy Violation
- 1Call GetAccountPasswordPolicy and capture current rule set.
- 2Evaluate candidate password against each policy rule deterministically.
- 3Inspect credential-generation defaults used by onboarding/reset automation.
- 4Correlate failures with recent account password-policy updates.
Live Password Policy Rule Evaluation
- -Fetch current account policy and evaluate each rule against candidate password (example: minimum length and symbol requirements not satisfied).
- -Include password history and reuse constraints in validation path (example: generated temp password collides with recent password history).
Credential Generator and Workflow Sync
- -Audit generator defaults versus live policy updates (example: service still uses old max-age/complexity assumptions).
- -Validate onboarding/reset services refresh policy before generation (example: cached policy from previous day causes repeated violations).
How to Verify the Fix
- -Retry password operation with policy-compliant value and confirm success.
- -Validate user onboarding/reset flow completes end-to-end.
- -Confirm no repeated PasswordPolicyViolation spikes.
How to Prevent Recurrence
- -Fetch live password policy before generating credentials.
- -Sync password generators with policy changes automatically.
- -Alert on policy-violation trends in identity workflows.
Pro Tip
- -embed policy-aware password validation library in all identity services and fail locally before hitting IAM APIs to eliminate avoidable violations.
Decision Support
Compare Guide
HTTP 400 vs 422: Bad Request vs Unprocessable Content
Fix API payload issues faster by using 400 for malformed syntax and 422 for semantic validation failures, so clients correct format before business rules.
Playbook
CORS Error Fix Playbook (Preflight / Origin / Credentials)
Use this playbook to separate browser-enforced cross-origin policy failures from server-side CORS header and route defects and apply strict origin and credential controls safely.
Playbook
Validation Failure Playbook (400 / 422 / INVALID_ARGUMENT)
Use this playbook to separate malformed-request failures from semantic validation failures, then fix request contracts without broad server-side bypasses.
Official References
Provider Context
This guidance is specific to AWS services. Always validate implementation details against official provider documentation before deploying to production.