password limit in Linux

[Ragni Singh]

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?

[Glenn S. Davidson]

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

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

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.

[Steven McCoy]

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

[dirk dierickx]

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.

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

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.

[Wilfred Chau_1]

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