error message when changing password

[Elena Leontieva]

Hello,

When a user changes a password and tries to use some special character like "#" or "@" he gets back a generic message:

New password:
The password entered is not valid. Valid passwords must contain at least:
1 upper case character(s),
1 lower case charcter(s),
1 digit(s), and
1 special character(s).

I wonder, is it possible to display a more specific message?

Thanks,
Elena.

[Paul Sperry]

@ and # are special characters and are not allowed in hp-ux passwords.

@ symbol is a special symbol that is interpreted as: IGNORE anything prior

I forget what # was

[Paul Sperry]

# is the erase charcter I believe

[Michael Steele_2]

Re: "...wonder, is it possible to display a more specific message?...".

No.

# and @ are reserved for getty. I think # pound means backspace and @ means ignore or backspace also. (* caveman unix stuff that's still hanging around *).

You can try putting a '/' in front of the # or @. This is also standard unix.

! works as does :.

[OldSchool]

from "man" page for passwd:

WARNING
Avoid password characters which have special meaning to the tty driver, such as # (erase) and @ (kill). You may not be able to login with these characters.

========================================

Notes:
# erase a previously typed character, one per "#"

@ erase everything previously typed.

This behaviour is not related to the output of "stty -a"...and AFAIK, can't be modified. you might be able to "escape" it with a "\" prior, as in asd\#912, but I'm not certain about that.

[OldSchool]

better still, from "man getty":

While getty does understand simple single character quoting conventions, it is not possible to quote the special control
characters that getty uses to determine when the end of the line has been reached, which protocol is being used, and what the erase character is. Therefore it is not possible to log in by means of getty and type a #, @, /, !, _, backspace, ^U, ^D, or & as part of your login name or arguments. They will always be interpreted as
having their special meaning as described

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi Elena,

You would like to change the message to someting like?

The password entered is not valid. Valid passwords must contain at least:
1 upper case character(s),
1 lower case charcter(s),
1 digit(s), and
1 special character(s).
Do not use the special characters @ and # in your password!

Robert-Jan

[Elena Leontieva]

Robert-Jan,

Yes, can I add to this message what characters they should not use?

Thanks,
Elena.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

searching....

[Paul Sperry · Accepted solution]

On a non-trusted system those messages are hard-coded into the passwd command and cannot be changed

[Paul Sperry]

take a look at a few ideas here:

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=427148

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

No Elena, it is hardcoded into the commands. Look in Paul's thread, Jeff has an idear of a wrapper. Or you could try to log a case and ask for a patch :)

[Mounaam]

(from HP-UX System Administrator's Guide):
---8<---
As many users discover to their frustration, UNIX was originally developed on TeleType machines that had no backspace operation. Consequently, the process of editing input data was performed by printing characters: #, delete one character and @, delete the line. Interrupt was defined as Rubout (ASCII DEL). This situation has carried over to the process of logging in to a system. #, @, and DEL are still the HP-UX default login control characters today.
--->8---

You can change this default behavior by configuring /dev/ttyconf.

Take a look to http://www.docs.hp.com/en/5992-3386/ch02s03.html

[Elena Leontieva]

This is HP-UX 11.11 trusted system. Does it make any difference?

Thanks a lot for all your responses.

[Bill Hassell]

No, a Trusted System does not affect these special characters. They are part of the terminal driver defaults (and have been for 20 years) so standard login tools and setups will inherit this setting. These two characters are changed immediately after login in /etc/profile or .profile with stty commands. The link above from Mounaam provides the solution for all systems starting at 10.01 and higher. Just put the 1-liner in inittab for ttyconf and the problem disappears:

ttco::bootwait:/sbin/stty intr ^C erase ^H kill ^U < /dev/ttyconf

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/5992-3386/ch02s03.html

At the bottom of the page.

[Dennis Handly]

>Paul: On a non-trusted system those messages are hard-coded into the passwd command and cannot be changed

This may not true for 11.23. Just change /usr/lib/nls/msg/C/passwd.cat, message 91

> This is HP-UX 11.11 trusted system.

Ok, that won't help you.