Spaces in passwords

[Bill Stewart]

>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 at ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215