Maximum Password Length?

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Level 2

179 points

Maximum Password Length?

What is the absolute maximum password length you can have for a user account?

I have spent over an hour searching help files and Google and I can find no mention of a maximum password length for OS X. I know early version of OS X only used 8 characters. And I know you can set a max length using pwpolicy. What is the "out-of-the-box" maximum password length?

Thanks

Message was edited by: Auctoris

MacBook Pro 15" 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.4), 2 GB RAM/160 GB Drive

Posted on Aug 10, 2008 2:33 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 11, 2008 12:32 AM in response to Kappy

Just out of curiosity, why shouldn't one use spaces or punctuation marks? I would think it would make it more difficult to crack.

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Aug 10, 2008 2:51 PM in response to Auctoris

There isn't a defined limit although there's probably a practical one in terms of what you can remember. However, avoid using anything other than letters and numbers (no spaces or punctuation characters) and keep the length reasonable. Avoid using passwords that are easy giveaways like dates, phone numbers, and the like. The more "jumbled" the password the more difficult it will be to guess or crack even if it only has from 8-11 characters.

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Answer 3

Auctoris Author

Level 2

179 points

Aug 10, 2008 2:59 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks for the info.

For certain reason I'm looking at using 24-30 character passwords. I didn't want to bother with it if OS X was only going to look at the first 16-20 characters the way it previously only looked at the first 8 characters. Now I know. 🙂

Thanks again.

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Answer 4

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Aug 10, 2008 3:07 PM in response to Auctoris

Apple's only relevant document is Choosing Good Passwords for OS X. I would keep them under 31 characters for simplicity.

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