Re: Spaces in passwords

["Jon Leonard" <jleonard@divcom.umop-ap.com>]

> 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