topic Re: password limit in Linux in Operating System - Linux

password limit in Linux

Ragni Singh — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:34:16 GMT

Is there a password limit for users? For user oracle, I have a password of fujitsu2009, but when I login I am able to login with 2008, 2007. I tried it for user root and it doesn't work.

Is there a character limit for a regular user and what is it versus root user?

Re: password limit in Linux

Glenn S. Davidson — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:06:56 GMT

It it limited to 8 characters. It has been that way for as long as I know. Anything past the 8 characters is ignored.

Re: password limit in Linux

Vitaly Karasik_1 — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:01:44 GMT

AFAIK, there is no 8-symbols limit when passwords are stored using MD5 hash.
Which distro do you use?
It may be limited using PAM, but at least in my CENTOS5 with default settings there is no such limitation.

Re: password limit in Linux

Steven McCoy — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:17:00 GMT

Same here with RHEL5.2, no limits in place (tested with normal user).

Re: password limit in Linux

dirk dierickx — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:35:24 GMT

on hpux this limit is present, it drives me nuts because an 8 char password is rather limited and easy to guess with todays advanced cracking tools.

anyway, just to say that i know of no such limit on linux BY DEFAULT. ofcourse you can configure it to do so if wanted.

Re: password limit in Linux

Vitaly Karasik_1 — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:52:49 GMT

as far as I remember, 8-symbols limit in HPUX and other legacy UNIX/LINUX systems is because instead of MD5 hash they use some legacy, shorter hash.
BTW, I belive the latest HPUX supports MD5.

Re: password limit in Linux

Wilfred Chau_1 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:07:47 GMT

check /etc/login.defs and
see what is set for PASS_MAX_LEN.