A password of only 8 characters is certainly less secure than one of 9 characters, provided both are properly generated, and a brute-force cracking method is used. I had one that was about 50, but one of 128 characters would indeed be too long to type. It consisted of nonsensical words/numbers that were easy to remember, yet difficult to guess. I don't think the problem lies in remembering the password. Its very tedious to enter a password of extremely long lengths every time you log in ... Writing it down defeats the purpose of passwords. They should remain in your head. The PGP Password FAQ is a good place to start (Williams: 1995): Writing your passphrase is a breach of security if care is not taken. Many ordinary disposal methods hand your written passphrase to anyone looking. A simple technique with an ordinary pencil will grab a passphrase from a pad of paper after the top sheet where the actual writing took place is removed. Throwing the copy of your passphrase in the trash gives your passphrase to the dumpster divers. Even trash from your house can be searched without much trouble. A wallet isn't a good place if you get hurt or your wallet gets stolen. There are many other problems with things that are written down. On Sat, Jun 10, 2000 at 11:15:48AM -0700, Greg Thomas wrote:
On Sat, 10 Jun 2000 eighteenrabbit@bright.net wrote:
A password of only 8 characters is certainly less secure than one of 128 characters. I believe SuSE 6.3 came enabled to use the MD5 password hash by default, which version are you using?
Except that how many people can remember a 128 character password without writing it down?
-- [-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- adam j henry =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=] | [http: www.heidelberg.edu/~ahenry] [pgp: 0xBD168A74] | | [mailto: ahenry@heidelberg.edu] [icq: 69243836] | [-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=] -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/