Microsoft Azure Password Protection is a service that checks user passwords against banned lists at the time of creation, change, or reset. It enforces a global list of known weak passwords and allows administrators to add a custom list of organization-specific terms. The service uses fuzzy matching to detect common character substitutions and variations of banned words. It can be applied to both cloud-based Entra ID accounts and on-premises Active Directory environments via agents. The system includes an audit mode to test policy impact before full enforcement and provides reporting on blocked password attempts.
