Passwords: does size matter, what characters?

[John Abreau]

Drew Van Zandt wrote:
>> up to checking against a dictionary lookup.
>>
> I'd just go straight to dictionary lookup - that way people like me
> can use sane-but-secure passwords.  I know many places that do
> dictionary lookup also check the hash against hashes of all previous
> passwords so they can't re-use... I'm of divided opinion about that,
> as collisions tells you someone else may be using it as their
> password.

Maybe someone else was using that password, or maybe you just didn't 
realize was easily crackable.

If the password rejection doesn't indicate why it rejects a given 
password, then you won't know for sure.

-- 
John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
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