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.

Depends on the space of ideas that are leading to your passwords. If the reason you're adding spaces is to separate an n-character word from the dictionary from a 7-n character word from the dictionary, this reduces the search space for a cracker considerably. At least pick random punctuation instead. On the other hand, if your password is a bunch of randomly chosen characters, having another character in the space doesn't hurt. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215