View current user password length

[Guest]

Is it possible to view the length of a user's current password? The single asterisk (*) character in the user properties, general tab is misleading (as makes it look like a one digit password is in place).

[cmccullough]

Re: View current user password length

No. Passwords are encrypted and there's really no way without cracking them to know how many characters are there.

[Guest]

Re: View current user password length

Thanks for the very fast reply; I had a feeling this would be the answer.

Is there any way that the single asterisk character can be removed? New users (such as myself) may think this means a single digit password is present for this user.

Regards,

Arne

[cmccullough]

Re: View current user password length

I'll forward your suggestion to Development.

[kstanush]

Re: View current user password length

We chose the single-digit asterisk for two reasons:

1. Having multiple-asterisks might give a user that the length of the password was reflected in the number of asterisks, when in fact it would not. We felt that using one (or none at all) would give a signal that we don't know the length since a single-character password is not generally allowed under the default password policy.

2. And, to enter a new password, you would have more characters to clear, although with perhaps the default Windows Control-A/Delete this might not matter.

This is one of those areas where we don't know what is the best way to handle something and its hard to ask other users what they think. We'll consider adding an advanced option where you can enter the number that you want, that way it would be controllable. The problem with the advanced options, though is noone really knows they are there...

[Guest]

Re: View current user password length

If this field is only to be used to set a new password, then I think it would help to say "[Enter new password here]", perhaps in italic font. Ideally this field would be cleared as soon as the field takes focus (e.g. when user clicks inside it) to avoid the delete lots of characters / CTRL+A & delete issue!

The re-enter password field should be empty, or has "[Re-enter password here]" text as above.

I hope this helps.

Arne

[kstanush]

Re: View current user password length

The problem with a message like this is new users (ie new users to Hyena) might think they have to enter a new password, and setting focus to the password field might give them the impression that the existing password has just been cleared and leaving it blank might reset it to a blank password. The other problem is that Hyena has been around now for over 10 years, and changing things for existing users will create a lot of confusion. Current Microsoft apps don't put the password field on the user Properties dialog anymore, so trying to see how they do it does not help.

[Guest]

Re: View current user password length

In which case, the best thing may be to hide / remove the new password fields and have a button / link saying 'reset password' or similar. This then becomes more obvious what the fields are for?!

Arne