We use privacy-by-default, cookieless analytics.

Optional analytics cookies are used only if you accept them.

Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Artifact GuideUKPSTI Password and Update Policy Requirements

UK PSTI Product Security PSTI Password and Update Policy Requirements

Implement the UK PSTI password rule and publish a defined security support period with the required end date, access conditions, and change controls.

Apply the exact Schedule 1 wording to the released product. Standards and test methods can support evidence, but only the statutory conditions determine compliance with the UK requirement.

Back to main artifactReview sources
Author
Sorena AI
Published
May 9, 2026
Updated
Jul 24, 2026
Sections
4

Structured answer sets in this page tree.

Primary sources
4

Cited legal and guidance references.

Publication metadata
Sorena AI
Published May 9, 2026
Updated Jul 24, 2026
Overview

Schedule 1 to the PSTI Security Requirements Regulations 2023 sets two separate duties covered here under the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Act 2022. Covered passwords must be unique per product or user-defined, with safeguards against easily guessable unique credentials. For covered hardware and software that can receive , the must be published as a minimum period with an end date and must not be shortened.

Section 1

Password requirement

Apply paragraph 1 to each password within its hardware and software scope. The compliant branches are unique per product or defined by the user. For a manufacturer-supplied unique password, the generation method cannot rely on incremental counters, public information, an unprotected unique product identifier, or another easily guessable basis.

Test initial setup and every recovery path. A product can pass first-boot testing and fail after factory reset if a shared credential remains when the product leaves the factory default state. Password strength recommendations beyond the statutory text may be sensible security controls, but label them as additional controls.

  • Inventory covered password-protected interfaces and associated software.
  • Choose and document the unique-per-product or user-defined branch for each password.
  • Test production uniqueness, guessability, setup interruption, recovery, and factory reset.
  • Keep live passwords and generation secrets out of broadly accessible compliance records.
Sources for this answer
PSTI Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products Regulations 2023 (current text)
The current consolidated Regulations contain the detailed password, vulnerability-reporting, update-period, statement, deemed-compliance, and exception rules.
Regulations: consumer connectable product security
OPSS and DSIT guidance explains the regime, covered actors and products, the three requirements, statement accompaniment, and enforcement authority.
Section 2

Defined support period and publication

The is the minimum length of time, expressed as a period with an end date, for which will be provided. Paragraph 3 applies only to the listed hardware and software when it can receive security updates. Its associated-software branch excludes a smartphone or cellular-capable tablet, but the other paragraph 3 branches still need to be checked.

Publish the information without prior request, in English, free of charge, without asking for personal information, and in a form understandable without technical knowledge. On a qualifying invitation to purchase on the manufacturer's website or a free website under its control, publish it alongside or give it equal prominence to the main product characteristics.

  • State both the minimum length and a calendar end date for the product or product range.
  • Identify the hardware and software covered by the support commitment.
  • Test that a visitor can find the information without login, form submission, payment, or personal-data entry.
  • Capture the published page, date, product identifiers, approval, and release version.
Sources for this answer
PSTI Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products Regulations 2023 (current text)
The current consolidated Regulations contain the detailed password, vulnerability-reporting, update-period, statement, deemed-compliance, and exception rules.
Regulations: consumer connectable product security
OPSS and DSIT guidance explains the regime, covered actors and products, the three requirements, statement accompaniment, and enforcement authority.
Section 3

Changing the support commitment

The manufacturer may extend the minimum period. Under the amended rule, publish the new as soon as practicable. Paragraph 3(6) says the security requirement is not met if the published defined support period is shortened.

Distinguish the statutory minimum from an expected product lifetime, warranty, feature-update plan, or promise that every vulnerability will receive a particular fix. Keep the wording precise enough that consumers can tell what period is guaranteed.

  • Route any extension through support, engineering, legal, and publication owners.
  • Update all controlled consumer-facing locations and preserve the previous and new publication dates.
  • Reject proposed changes that shorten the published minimum.
  • Keep security-update capacity and third-party software dependencies aligned with the commitment.
Sources for this answer
PSTI Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products Regulations 2023 (current text)
The current consolidated Regulations contain the detailed password, vulnerability-reporting, update-period, statement, deemed-compliance, and exception rules.
Section 4

Release evidence and failure response

Approve the password evidence and support-period publication for the same released model. Importers and distributors should verify the product's statement route and required information rather than assuming the manufacturer's general policy covers their stock.

If the shipped product or published commitment does not meet the applicable requirement, investigate the potential compliance failure, identify affected units and actors, remedy it where required, and make the role-specific notifications required by the Act.

  • Link password test results, support notice, statement, product version, owner, and approval in one release record.
  • Check regional pages, retailer copy, packaging links, and support sites for inconsistent dates.
  • Block supply when the statutory conditions prohibit making the product available.
  • Record the failure, risks, remedy, validation, notifications, and whether corrective action succeeded.
Sources for this answer
Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022, Part 1
Part 1 defines product and actor scope, statements, investigations, remediation, notifications, records, and enforcement.
Consumer connectable product security regulations: enforcement actions
OPSS guidance explains compliance failures, investigations, notifications, notices, penalties, representations, and appeals.
Recommended next step

Apply this guide to a product assessment

Use the page for one product model, UK route, and legal entity, with named owners, evidence requests, and review points.

Assessment workflow
Open Assessment Autopilot for UK PSTI Product Security

Create scoped questions, evidence fields, and review tasks from this guide.

Explore next step
Research workflow
Review UK PSTI Product Security source evidence

Use Research Copilot to answer follow-up questions with cited source material.

Explore next step
Talk to Sorena
Talk through implementation

Review scope, evidence, owners, and the next compliance actions with Sorena.

Explore next step
Primary sources

References and citations

Related guides

Explore more topics

UK PSTI Act statement of compliance: what must the SoC contain?
Understand when a UK PSTI statement is required, the Schedule 4 fields, supply-chain checks, retention, digital accompaniment, and the December 2025 label route.
UK PSTI Act: vulnerability disclosure policy requirements and template
Publish a free, clear, accessible English reporting route plus expected acknowledgement and status-update times, and retain evidence that the information remained available.
UK PSTI applicability test: product, market, and actor scope
Apply the UK PSTI tests in order: connectivity, current exceptions, UK consumer availability, supply facts, and the manufacturer, importer, or distributor trigger.
UK PSTI compliance checklist for product release
Use a release checklist with scope, role, security-control, statement, records, and compliance-failure evidence for UK consumer connectable products.
UK PSTI compliance: duties, evidence, and response
Build a UK PSTI compliance process covering product scope, supply-chain roles, the three security requirements, statements, records, and post-market failures.
UK PSTI default password requirements
Apply the UK PSTI password rule to each relevant password, test unique-per-product generation, and keep reset and release evidence for the shipped model.
UK PSTI Default Password Rules
PSTI requires each covered password to be user-defined or unique per product. Unique credentials must not use prohibited predictable generation methods.
UK PSTI ETSI Evidence and Deemed Compliance
ETSI EN 303 645 and TS 103 701 can structure technical evidence, but the standards-based PSTI route depends on the exact mapped provisions and additional Schedule 2 conditions.
UK PSTI Excepted Products and Boundaries
An internet- or network-connectable product is outside the relevant-product definition only when a current Schedule 3 exception applies; record the exact category and facts rather than relying on a broad sector label.
UK PSTI Importer and Distributor Duties
Importers and distributors have their own statement, stop-supply, remediation, and notification duties; importers also have statutory investigation and 10-year investigation-record duties.
UK PSTI Manufacturer, Importer and Distributor Roles
Distinguish manufacturer, importer, distributor, and authorised-representative duties per product and supply route, including rebranding, imports, statement checks, stop-supply decisions, and compliance failures.
UK PSTI OPSS Notices: Compliance, Stop, Recall, and Penalties
OPSS can use compliance, stop, and recall notices alongside monetary and other measures; notice recipients should preserve the notice, product scope, supply records, corrective actions, representations, and appeal dates.
UK PSTI Product Security Deadlines and Compliance Calendar Guide
Track the UK PSTI regime's commencement and amendment dates, product-specific support periods, record retention, and OPSS response and appeal windows.
UK PSTI Product Security FAQ
Get direct, sourced answers on product scope, exceptions, roles, passwords, vulnerability reporting, update-period information, statements, records, and OPSS enforcement.
UK PSTI Product Security Importer and Distributor Duties Guide
Identify the pre-supply checks, statement or deemed-compliance evidence, stop-supply decisions, notification and remediation duties required of UK importers and distributors, plus importer-specific investigation and record duties.
UK PSTI Product Security Minimum Support Period and Update Transparency Guide
Publish the minimum security-update period and end date in English, free of charge, without prior request, and in clear language, without implying that PSTI sets one duration for every product.
UK PSTI Product Security OPSS Enforcement and Penalties Guide
Understand OPSS investigations, compliance, stop and recall notices, monetary penalties, forfeiture, court orders, representations, appeals, and evidence needed to respond.
UK PSTI Product Security OPSS Notices Guide
Prepare for compliance, stop, and recall notices by understanding their effects, representation and appeal routes, product records, and corrective-action evidence.
UK PSTI Product Security Penalties and Fines Guide
Understand the maximum fixed and daily PSTI penalties, how OPSS sets an amount, representation and appeal rights, and separate court-ordered sanctions.
UK PSTI product security requirements
Read the three Schedule 1 security requirements and the surrounding manufacturer, importer, distributor, statement, record, and failure-response duties.
UK PSTI Relevant Connectable Product Scope
A product is relevant when it is internet-connectable or network-connectable and not excepted, then the UK consumer-use and supply facts determine whether the Part 1 duties engage.
UK PSTI relevant connectable product scope test
Decide whether one product meets the UK PSTI connectivity definition, falls within a current exception, and reaches the separate UK-consumer duty tests.
UK PSTI relevant connectable products: categories and exceptions
Understand which connected product categories can enter UK PSTI scope, how the statutory tests work, and why examples never replace the current exception schedule.
UK PSTI Scope Classifier Workflow
Decide whether a product falls within the UK PSTI product-security regime by checking connectivity, consumer supply, exceptions, actor roles, and product-specific evidence.
UK PSTI security requirements in practice
Implement the three UK PSTI security requirements through product specifications, release tests, public information, approvals, and post-release evidence.
UK PSTI Security Update Support Periods
PSTI does not prescribe a universal minimum number of support years. The manufacturer sets and publishes a product-specific minimum period and end date; preserve the published commitment and assess any later change against the current Regulations.
UK PSTI Security Update Transparency
Publish the minimum security-update period and end date in English, free of charge, without prior request, and in language understandable without technical knowledge.
UK PSTI Statement of Compliance Evidence Pack
Join the prescribed statement fields to product identifiers, control evidence, publication records, supply-chain checks, accompaniment evidence, retention, and change management.
UK PSTI Statement of Compliance Template
Build a statement record with the prescribed Schedule 4 information and evidence that it accompanied the product, while checking whether a current Schedule 2A deemed-compliance route applies.
UK PSTI Statement of Compliance Workflow
Prepare, approve, provide, verify, retain, and update statement evidence before a relevant connectable product is made available in the UK.
UK PSTI Statement of Compliance: Contents, Delivery, and Records
A statement must contain the prescribed information and accompany the product unless a current deemed-compliance route applies; a digital method is possible, but each business must ensure that it meets the Act.
UK PSTI Support Period Evidence Workflow
Set, publish, approve, and preserve the product-specific minimum security-update period and end date, then control changes and customer information against the shipped product.
UK PSTI to ETSI Evidence Mapping
Map ETSI EN 303 645 and TS 103 701 evidence to the three UK legal requirements without treating the wider voluntary ETSI baseline as if every provision were mandatory under PSTI.
UK PSTI vs Australia Smart Device Rules
Compare UK PSTI with Australia's Cyber Security Act smart-device rules by scope, duties, statements, security controls, retention, dates, and enforcement.
UK PSTI vs ETSI EN 303 645
See how binding UK PSTI duties relate to ETSI EN 303 645, which edition the UK Regulations name, what the standard adds, and what evidence to retain.
UK PSTI vs EU Cyber Resilience Act
Decide whether UK PSTI, the EU Cyber Resilience Act, or both apply, then compare actors, exclusions, security work, documents, reporting, and dates.
UK PSTI vs EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)
Compare UK PSTI and the EU Cyber Resilience Act by scope, security duties, support periods, conformity assessment, reporting, evidence, and application dates.
UK PSTI Vulnerability Disclosure Requirements
Publish a clear reporting route plus expected acknowledgement and status-update times. PSTI requires the information and timescales to be available; it does not prescribe one universal response deadline for every report.
UK PSTI Vulnerability Disclosure Workflow
Operate intake, acknowledgement, status updates, investigation, remediation, disclosure, and evidence while keeping the legal publication duty distinct from broader good-practice response targets.