Author Topic: Illegal password characters?  (Read 14733 times)

Offline tanstaafl

  • God Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 1363
Illegal password characters?
« on: August 31, 2005, 02:33:19 PM »
I would like to use all characters that are legal on most systems for my character set. Does anyone know of a definitive list of characters that are definite no-no's (will not work on most/all systems)? Like, for example, I found this while googling:

quote:
"Illegal characters include: ^c, ^d, ^g, ^h (or Backspace), ^i (or Tab), ^j, ^m, ^o, ^r, ^s, ^q, ^y, ^z, ^\, ^, Delete, @, and #"

Thanks

Offline Eric H. Jung

  • grimholtz
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3353
Illegal password characters?
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2005, 11:41:43 PM »
Hi tanstaafl,

Quote
I would like to use all characters that are legal on most systems

As a software engineer for many, many years (even prior to the web) who has written and examined password logic for numerous enterprise systems--including the ultra-secure financial services industry--I can tell you that not only is there no "definitive list" of acceptable characters, but there's no such thing as "legal on most systems". Each and every system is completely independent in this regard.

Sorry to give you bad news :(

Note that you can even use non-English characters on many systems; e.g., the British pound symbol, the German esset, characters with diacritical marks, etc. If you have a US English keyboard and want to enter these characters into the Characters field, its quite simply: you have to use the numpad in conjunction with the Alt key. Try ALT-225, for example. That's the German esset. Note you MUST use the numpad (with numlock on), not the numbers in the top row of your keyboard. Also, this doesn't work on Mac, Linux, or Unix--just Windows.

Offline Romeo

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 561
Illegal password characters?
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2005, 11:48:48 PM »
Eric, I believe you are talking about these German letters:  Ã¤Ã¶Ã¼ÃŸÃ„ÖÜ, correct ?  Of course, other languages have their own special letters, such as أع٢, etc.  The list is endless.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2005, 01:40:08 AM by Romeo »
It is impossible to create a fool-proof system, because fools are ingenious.

Offline tanstaafl

  • God Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 1363
Illegal password characters?
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2005, 01:56:41 AM »
Ouch...

Ok, so, are there some characters that are known *not* to work on most Unix systems? Windows?

Regardless, it looks like my request for a way to omit characters from the default character set - as opposed to simply defining an entire new one - would be even more useful, no?

Offline Eric H. Jung

  • grimholtz
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 3353
Illegal password characters?
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2005, 04:12:33 AM »
Hi Romeo, yes, I'm talking about any non-English character like the ones you displayed. By "esset" (is it "essen"?) I mean this character: ßßßßß

(that is, double-s in modern German)


Quote
Regardless, it looks like my request for a way to omit characters from the default character set - as opposed to simply defining an entire new one - would be even more useful, no?
I need to review that request more closely and will respond on that thread....

Thanks,
Eric

Offline Romeo

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 561
Illegal password characters?
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2005, 04:22:04 AM »
Yes Eric, it is.  In German it is a hard s, just like ss would be.  As a matter of fact, ss is generally accepted as a substitute for ß.
It is impossible to create a fool-proof system, because fools are ingenious.

PasswordMaker Forums

Illegal password characters?
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2005, 04:22:04 AM »