1996-04-18 - Re: Spaces in passwords

Header Data

From: “Jon Leonard” <jleonard@divcom.umop-ap.com>
To: perry@piermont.com
Message Hash: 70392998f509754a92d17e858316650226216a368c5db3bfad12b990942adf4c
Message ID: <9604181538.AA16305@divcom.umop-ap.com>
Reply To: <199604171543.LAA05427@jekyll.piermont.com>
UTC Datetime: 1996-04-18 19:50:45 UTC
Raw Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 03:50:45 +0800

Raw message

From: "Jon Leonard" <jleonard@divcom.umop-ap.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 03:50:45 +0800
To: perry@piermont.com
Subject: Re: Spaces in passwords
In-Reply-To: <199604171543.LAA05427@jekyll.piermont.com>
Message-ID: <9604181538.AA16305@divcom.umop-ap.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


> Ben Rothke writes:
> > Do spaces (ASCII 20) in passwords make them less secure?
> 
> Of course not. In a normal Unix password, adding spaces to the
> password search space increases the search space, so it necessarily
> makes the search harder.

The exception to this is when you may be overheard typing a password.
The space bar sounds different, and an attacker who knows you've used
a space has a significantly smaller search space.

So I usually recommend avoiding space, @, #, and control characters
when generating passwords.  Have I missed any or gotten too many?  

> .pm

Jon Leonard

Thread

• Return to April 1996

• Return to “Arley Carter <ac@hawk.twinds.com>”
• Return to “Ben Rothke <ben.rothke@citicorp.com>”
• Return to ““Jon Leonard” <jleonard@divcom.umop-ap.com>”
• Return to ““Perry E. Metzger” <perry@piermont.com>”

• Return to “Rabid Wombat <wombat@mcfeely.bsfs.org>”

• 1996-04-17 (Thu, 18 Apr 1996 03:38:20 +0800) - Spaces in passwords - Ben Rothke <ben.rothke@citicorp.com>
  • 1996-04-17 (Thu, 18 Apr 1996 03:52:24 +0800) - Re: Spaces in passwords - “Perry E. Metzger” <perry@piermont.com>
    • 1996-04-18 (Fri, 19 Apr 1996 03:50:45 +0800) - Re: Spaces in passwords - “Jon Leonard” <jleonard@divcom.umop-ap.com>
      • 1996-04-19 (Fri, 19 Apr 1996 14:38:57 +0800) - Re: Spaces in passwords - Rabid Wombat <wombat@mcfeely.bsfs.org>
        • 1996-04-19 (Fri, 19 Apr 1996 13:00:07 +0800) - Re: Spaces in passwords - “Jon Leonard” <jleonard@divcom.umop-ap.com>
      • 1996-04-22 (Tue, 23 Apr 1996 04:08:32 +0800) - Re: Spaces in passwords - Arley Carter <ac@hawk.twinds.com>