password_min_special _char

[Elena Leontieva]

Hello,

I wonder if all special characters can be used in a password, specifically the "#" sign?

One user complained that if she has a "#" in a password the system would not let her log in.

Thanks,
Elena.

[Mel Burslan · Accepted solution]

# can not be used as well as @ in passwords as they have special meaning to the terminal sessions.

[Sp4admin]

Hi Elena,

Mel has provided the correct answer. You can't use "@ and #" as a special characters in the password.

sp,

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Elena:

In fact, the restrictions are documented in the 'getty(1M)' manpages under "BUGS":

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/B2355-60127/getty.1M.html

Regards!

...JRF...

[Bill Hassell]

Actually, it is not quite true that # and @ cxannot be used in a password. The reason that they are not recommended is that the default stty settings have #=backspace @=cancel. It's been that way for about 20 years in HP-UX. However, a change was (quietly) made to the terminal drivers to enable the use of a new device file: /dev/ttyconf. This device file will set selected control character to new defaults. Now when you login, there is an stty statement in /etc/profile that 'fixes' the archaic default but prior to login, the login and password are processed with the defaults.

So to fix this, you simply use stty with the /dev/ttyconf file as in:

stty erase "^H" kill "^U" < /dev/ttyconf

Now, a new login will be able to use the normal backspace key and passwords can contain # and @. To make this change permanent, create a start/stop script in /sbin/init.d and add that statement to the script. Note that the console login is special -- the device file is never closed so the new settings, even if enabled at the beginning of the boot process, will use the default setting.

[Elena Leontieva]

Special thanks to Bill for his reply.