Re: Spaces in passwords

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