@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+---
+'@objectstack/plugin-auth': patch
+'@object-ui/app-shell': patch
+'@object-ui/i18n': patch
+---
+
+feat(plugin-auth): a forced password change now requires a password different from the current one
+
+Clause-②: no (narrowing)
+Metadata-protocol: none
+
+<!-- adr-0087: not-required (no-migration-prescription) No metadata moves: no spec key, authorable spelling, export or stored shape is removed, renamed or re-shaped, so there is nothing for `objectstack migrate meta` to rewrite. What narrows is a credential door's accept set: `/change-password` and `/reset-password` stop accepting the current password as the new one while an administrator's forced change is outstanding, and the remedy is to choose a different password, never a rewrite of anyone's code or metadata. No exported declaration is removed or narrowed (not runtime-interface-only or type-surface-only); every bumped package publishes (not unpublished); no ADR-0087 id is named or touched (not registered or already-registered). -->
+
+**BREAKING** (an accept-set narrowing), shipped as `patch`: the metadata protocol does not move, so the level is `patch` and this banner is the carrier.
+
+When an administrator issues a password and asks for it to be changed at next sign-in (`sys_user.must_change_password`, set by Create User, Set Password and Import Users), the change now has to move the user to a new password.
+
+**FROM.** With the forced-change flag set and the default `passwordHistoryCount` (0), a `/change-password` or `/reset-password` whose new password equals the current one completed and cleared the flag, so the user kept the password the administrator issued. With `passwordHistoryCount` above 0, a `/change-password` carrying a wrong current password and a recycled new one answered `400 PASSWORD_REUSE`.
+
+**TO.** While the forced change is outstanding, `/change-password` and `/reset-password` refuse the current password as the new one with `400 PASSWORD_REUSE` ("Choose a new password that is different from your temporary password."), whatever `passwordHistoryCount` is, and the flag stays set until a different password is chosen. On `/change-password` a reuse refusal of either kind (the forced change's and the `passwordHistoryCount` ring's) is given only after the current password is confirmed: a request whose current password is wrong answers the endpoint's own `INVALID_PASSWORD` whatever the new password is, including a recycled one at a history depth above 0, which answered `PASSWORD_REUSE` before. A confirmed request reusing the current or a recent password still answers `PASSWORD_REUSE`. `/reset-password` carries no current password; its token is the authority, and the forced refusal applies to it directly.
+
+**For clients.** A client that completes a forced change by sending the issued password back as the new one (an onboarding script, a test harness) must now send a different password.
+
+Nothing else changes: with no forced change outstanding, which passwords count as reuse is still decided by `passwordHistoryCount` exactly as before. If the flag cannot be read, the request goes on as though no forced change were outstanding and the failure is logged through the auth manager's durability-degradation channel.
+
+The Console's forced-change screen says the same thing in the user's language (all ten locale packs) when the new password matches the one typed as current, and sends no request.
@@ -177,7 +177,12 @@ export async function globalBeforeHook(
     // change/reset only (sign-up has no prior history). Reuses
     // better-auth's native password.verify — no bespoke crypto. Stashes
     // the old hash so the after-hook appends it to the bounded ring on
-    // success.
+    // success. While an administrator's forced change is outstanding the
+    // current password is refused here whatever the history depth. The
+    // change door hands over its current-password claim, and the claim gate
+    // sits above the history ring as well as the forced change: no
+    // `PASSWORD_REUSE` of either kind is given until that claim is confirmed
+    // (see the method's docblock).
     if (
       candidate &&
       (ctx?.path === '/reset-password' || ctx?.path === '/change-password')
@@ -189,7 +194,10 @@ export async function globalBeforeHook(
         ctx.context.__osPwChangeUserId = userId;
         const pw = ctx?.context?.password;
         const verify = typeof pw?.verify === 'function' ? pw.verify.bind(pw) : undefined;
-        const oldHash = await this.assertPasswordNotReused(userId, candidate, verify);
+        const currentPassword = ctx?.path === '/change-password'
+          ? (typeof ctx?.body?.currentPassword === 'string' ? ctx.body.currentPassword : '')
+          : undefined;
+        const oldHash = await this.assertPasswordNotReused(userId, candidate, verify, currentPassword);
         if (oldHash !== undefined) ctx.context.__osPwHistory = { userId, oldHash };
       }
     }
 
@@ -303,18 +303,73 @@ export async function resolvePasswordChangeUserId(this: Pick<PasswordSessionPoli
   return undefined;
 }
 
+/**
+ * The refusal a forced password change answers when the new password is the
+ * one the administrator issued. The code is `PASSWORD_REUSE` — the condition
+ * IS reuse of the current password — and the message names the case the user
+ * is in, which the history ring's generic message does not.
+ */
+export const FORCED_ROTATION_REUSE_MESSAGE =
+  'Choose a new password that is different from your temporary password.';
+
+/**
+ * Is an administrator's forced password change (`sys_user.must_change_password`,
+ * issued by the admin create-user, set-user-password and import-users doors)
+ * outstanding for `userId`? Read as the system; the column is `readonly`, not
+ * `internal`, so the row carries it. Fails open (false) on a lookup error, as
+ * every read in `assertPasswordNotReused` does, but never silently: the
+ * failure is reported through the host's durability-degradation channel (the
+ * one `stampPasswordChangedAt` reports its write through), because the
+ * request then looks normal while a security control did not run.
+ */
+async function isForcedRotationPending(
+  host: Pick<PasswordSessionPolicyHost, 'logDurabilityDegradation'>,
+  engine: any,
+  userId: string,
+  context: unknown,
+): Promise<boolean> {
+  try {
+    const u = await engine.findOne('sys_user', {
+      where: { id: userId },
+      fields: ['must_change_password'],
+      context,
+    });
+    return u?.must_change_password === true || u?.must_change_password === 1;
+  } catch (e) {
+    host.logDurabilityDegradation(
+      'AuthManager: the sys_user forced-change flag (must_change_password) could NOT be read '
+        + 'for a password change or reset — the request goes on as though no forced change were '
+        + 'outstanding, so the check that a forced change moves the user to a new password did not '
+        + 'run for it, and nothing else looks wrong. Remedy: make the sys_user read succeed; the '
+        + 'next change or reset reads the flag again.',
+      e,
+      { object: 'sys_user', fields: ['must_change_password'] },
+    );
+    return false;
+  }
+}
+
 /** The body of `AuthManager#assertPasswordNotReused`; the method's docblock there is its contract. */
 export async function assertPasswordNotReused(
-  this: Pick<PasswordSessionPolicyHost, 'config' | 'getDataEngine' | 'parseHashes'>,
+  this: Pick<PasswordSessionPolicyHost, 'config' | 'getDataEngine' | 'logDurabilityDegradation' | 'parseHashes'>,
   userId: string,
   candidate: string,
   verify?: (data: { password: string; hash: string }) => Promise<boolean>,
+  currentPassword?: string,
 ): Promise<string | undefined> {
   const count = Math.floor(Number(this.config.passwordHistoryCount) || 0);
-  if (count <= 0 || typeof verify !== 'function') return undefined;
+  if (typeof verify !== 'function') return undefined;
   const engine = this.getDataEngine();
   if (!engine) return undefined;
   const SYSTEM_CTX = { isSystem: true, positions: [], permissions: [] };
+  // A forced change exists to move the user OFF a password the administrator
+  // knows, so while it is outstanding the current password is refused as the
+  // new one whatever `passwordHistoryCount` says (0, the default, included).
+  // Every door that clears the flag (`stampPasswordChangedAt`, from the
+  // after-hook on `/change-password` and `/reset-password`) passes through
+  // here first.
+  const forced = await isForcedRotationPending(this, engine, userId, SYSTEM_CTX);
+  if (count <= 0 && !forced) return undefined;
   let account: any;
   try {
     account = await engine.findOne('sys_account', {
@@ -338,11 +393,29 @@ export async function assertPasswordNotReused(
   }
   if (!account?.id) return undefined;
   const currentHash = typeof account.password === 'string' ? account.password : '';
+  const matches = async (password: string, hash: string) => {
+    try { return await verify({ password, hash }); } catch { return false; }
+  };
+  // `/change-password` carries the caller's claim of the current password, and
+  // better-auth confirms that claim only AFTER this hook. Every reuse refusal
+  // below — the forced change's and the history ring's — is given only once
+  // the current password is confirmed; an unconfirmed claim is left to the
+  // endpoint's own refusal (`INVALID_PASSWORD`). `/reset-password` carries no
+  // claim (`currentPassword` undefined): its token is the caller's authority.
+  const claimHolds = currentPassword === undefined
+    || (!!currentHash && await matches(currentPassword, currentHash));
+  if (!claimHolds) return undefined;
+  if (forced && currentHash && await matches(candidate, currentHash)) {
+    const { APIError } = await import('better-auth/api');
+    throw new APIError('BAD_REQUEST', {
+      message: FORCED_ROTATION_REUSE_MESSAGE,
+      code: 'PASSWORD_REUSE',
+    });
+  }
+  if (count <= 0) return undefined;
   const compareList = [currentHash, ...this.parseHashes(account.previous_password_hashes)].filter(Boolean);
   for (const h of compareList) {
-    let match = false;
-    try { match = await verify({ password: candidate, hash: h }); } catch { match = false; }
-    if (match) {
+    if (await matches(candidate, h)) {
       const { APIError } = await import('better-auth/api');
       throw new APIError('BAD_REQUEST', {
         message: `For security you can't reuse one of your last ${count} passwords. Please choose a different one.`,
 
@@ -4382,11 +4382,33 @@ describe('AuthManager', () => {
       expect((m as any).parseHashes('["a","b"]')).toEqual(['a', 'b']);
     });
 
-    it('is a no-op when history depth is 0', async () => {
+    it('is a no-op when history depth is 0 and no forced change is outstanding', async () => {
       const engine = makeEngine(acct());
       const m = mgr(engine, { passwordHistoryCount: 0 });
       await expect((m as any).assertPasswordNotReused('u1', 'current', stubVerify)).resolves.toBeUndefined();
-      expect(engine.findOne).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+      // The one read is the forced-change flag on `sys_user`; with none
+      // outstanding the credential row is never read.
+      expect(engine.findOne.mock.calls.map((c: any[]) => c[0])).toEqual(['sys_user']);
+    });
+
+    it('reports a failed forced-change flag read through the durability channel and fails open', async () => {
+      const engine = makeEngine(acct());
+      engine.findOne.mockImplementation(async (o: string) => {
+        if (o === 'sys_user') throw new Error('sys_user read refused');
+        return null;
+      });
+      const logger = { warn: vi.fn(), info: vi.fn() };
+      const m = mgr(engine, { passwordHistoryCount: 0, logger });
+      logger.warn.mockClear();
+      // Fail open: treated as no forced change, so depth 0 accepts.
+      await expect((m as any).assertPasswordNotReused('u1', 'current', stubVerify)).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+      // ...but never silently: exactly one report naming the unread flag.
+      expect(logger.warn).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+      expect(logger.warn.mock.calls[0][1]).toMatchObject({
+        object: 'sys_user',
+        fields: ['must_change_password'],
+        error: 'sys_user read refused',
+      });
     });
 
     it('rejects reuse of the CURRENT password', async () => {
 
@@ -5443,20 +5443,37 @@ export class AuthManager {
    * native `password.verify` (passed in) rather than re-hashing. Returns the
    * current hash (for the after-hook to append) when the candidate is fresh, or
    * undefined when the feature is off / nothing to compare.
+   *
+   * While an administrator's forced change (`sys_user.must_change_password`)
+   * is outstanding, a candidate matching the CURRENT password is refused with
+   * `PASSWORD_REUSE` whatever `passwordHistoryCount` is, the default 0
+   * included: completing the change clears the flag, and it must not clear
+   * while the user keeps the password the administrator issued.
+   * `currentPassword` is the caller's claim of the current password on
+   * `/change-password` (`''` when the body carries none). The claim gate sits
+   * above BOTH reuse refusals, not only the forced change's: the history
+   * ring's `PASSWORD_REUSE` is also given only once the claim verifies against
+   * the current hash, so a wrong current password gets the endpoint's own
+   * `INVALID_PASSWORD` whatever the new password is. Omitted on a door that
+   * carries no claim (`/reset-password`, whose token is the authority). A
+   * failed read of the forced-change flag fails open (treated as not set) and
+   * is reported through `logDurabilityDegradation`.
    */
   private assertPasswordNotReused(
     userId: string,
     candidate: string,
     verify?: (data: { password: string; hash: string }) => Promise<boolean>,
+    currentPassword?: string,
   ): Promise<string | undefined> {
     // [#25224 cut 3] The body moved to `auth-manager-password-session-policy.ts` (see `PasswordSessionPolicyHost`).
     const readConfig = () => this.config;
-    const host: Pick<PasswordSessionPolicyHost, 'config' | 'getDataEngine' | 'parseHashes'> = {
+    const host: Pick<PasswordSessionPolicyHost, 'config' | 'getDataEngine' | 'logDurabilityDegradation' | 'parseHashes'> = {
       get config() { return readConfig(); },
       getDataEngine: (...a) => this.getDataEngine(...a),
+      logDurabilityDegradation: (...a) => this.logDurabilityDegradation(...a),
       parseHashes: (...a) => this.parseHashes(...a),
     };
-    return assertPasswordNotReused.call(host, userId, candidate, verify);
+    return assertPasswordNotReused.call(host, userId, candidate, verify, currentPassword);
   }
 
   /**