1996-04-17 - Spaces in passwords

Header Data

From: Ben Rothke <ben.rothke@citicorp.com>
To: “‘cypherpunks@toad.com>
Message Hash: fd91c79d9cd0be1ae2a41efb7eb9a7ad0d1a145fc59492202a88fc27d53aaa35
Message ID: <199604171502.AA17527@egate.citicorp.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1996-04-17 19:38:20 UTC
Raw Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 03:38:20 +0800

Raw message

From: Ben Rothke <ben.rothke@citicorp.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 03:38:20 +0800
To: "'cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Spaces in passwords
Message-ID: <199604171502.AA17527@egate.citicorp.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




Do spaces (ASCII 20) in passwords make them less secure?

I was speaking with a security admin who feels that spaces decrease the effectiveness of 
passwords.

I thought that they would actually do the opposite & increase password efficacy, as most 
password dictionary attacks do not attempt to attack embedded spaces. An attack trying to 
penetrate embedded spaces would seem to make the dictionary orders or magnitude larger.

Any comments?

Ben

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The views expressed are exclusively my own & not that of my employer
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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>