Context is that I had to register for a lot of accounts recently and some of the rules really make no sense.

Not name-and-shaming, but the best one I’ve seen recently is I might have accidentally performed an XSS attack on a career portal using a 40-digit randomly generated password…

  • dion_starfire@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    My favorite is a major credit card company with case-insensitive passwords. They also only allow a small handful of special characters, so the total possible character space is roughly 42 characters. Needless to say, I chose to use a password that was the maximum allowed length (which was sadly also only 32 characters).

  • ObsidianNebula@sh.itjust.works
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    7 hours ago

    I had to log back into an account for an app (I think Taco Bell) that decided to remove passwords entirely without any notice. You typed in your email address, had to open your email account and click a link they sent you, it would open a webpage, which would then have a button to open the app again. If I remember correctly too, it would only work on Chrome, so I had to copy and paste the link since Chrome isn’t my default browser that automatically opens from my mobile email.

    Besides that, I remember some website required a special character from an extremely small list and wouldn’t allow two of the same letter back-to-back.

  • CallMeMrFlipper@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Not sure if it falls under the same category, but the way Activision handles (handled? I haven’t used them since) passwords was atrocious! I had to reset my password to get back into my account, I used a random diceware password, it accepted it. However! The client on both Windows and Xbox wouldn’t let you input a password longer than I believe 20 characters. So while you can set a 25 character password, you can go fuck yourself if you actually wanna log in…

  • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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    14 hours ago

    My work was using some MS-based account system, but I don’t know if this was stock or something they modified. When you had to change your password, it would tell you if your new password didn’t meet the password requirements, as usual. What it wouldn’t tell you was what those requirements were

    So yeah, the requirements the system won’t tell you about would have to be the worst one i came across…

  • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
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    16 hours ago

    Stupid bank app doesn’t allow password managers… and if you hit the enter button to login you get an error message informing you that you need to mouse click on the button.

  • Lemm1ng@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    I had a wi-fi device a few years ago that would require a password up to 12 characters, but that requirement wasn’t explicitly written anywhere. The device would gladly accept a 13-character password, for example, but you would never be able to log in again (factory-resetting was the only way to undo).

    More recently I purchased a Lennox HVAC system that came with their proprietary thermostat (an Android tablet with a wall mount). During the Christmas break I got myself a new wi-fi router and had to reconfigure all my wireless devices. After 2 days, the Lennox thermostat was the last device to join the new wi-fi network… and it failed because their password could have any character EXCEPT the asterisk — and my new password had an asterisk. I didn’t like the idea of redoing all my other devices AGAIN just because of this idiotic password rule, so I ended up creating a new SSID just for the thermostat. I named it LENNOXSUCKS.

  • Valmond@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    One special character.

    Seems logic right? Until you get that it is one and one only. Took me some time.

  • umbraroze@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Probably the silliest thing I have run into was some game. It asked you to set two passwords. You needed both to login. The second password couldn’t be changed. This is why it was secure, see. (…What.)

    When I created my account and set the second password, I couldn’t log on the second time. Because I had entered a 20 character second password. It was accepted and verified during the account creation just fine. On the second login, it only accepted 16 characters. (It let you enter 20 characters but said it was too long.) Trying to enter first 16 characters of the second password didn’t work, of course.

    I then contacted the support, and they did manage to reset the second password anyway. (What is this even)

  • iamdefinitelyoverthirteen@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    I volunteer at a local high school and the students password is their birthday, because they are given their account at age 5, in kindergarten, and it’s something you can reasonably expect a 5 year old to remember. Also, the students are not allowed to change their password unless they get “hacked”, which is usually just another student logging into their account and deleting their assignments.

    • cammoblammo@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      A school I used to work at had a folder with student passwords for various services at the front of the computer lab. If a student forgot their password for a service, they just went and looked in the folder. Maybe they’d even get their mates’ passwords for them while they were at it!

      I did try to get the policy changed, and offered to teach staff and students how to use a password manager, but apparently remembering a single password was far too complicated, and it would make it much harder if you needed to log in to someone else’s account.

  • Dem Bosain@midwest.social
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    19 hours ago

    I add to make a password last fall that had the requirement “numerals or special characters”. A password with both numerals and special characters wouldn’t work.

  • tankplanker@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Worked somewhere that required security clearance that used your national insurance number (UK equivalent to SSN) as your login id. Most people in the UK do not memorise their NI number.

    Password had to be uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters, I think at least 12? Couldn’t have back to back special characters or start or end with numbers. No whole words, either.

    So now you have to remember two strings of letters and numbers. Sackable offensive to write either down. I once got a phone call from security because I would miss enter my password after lunch first time around, just once a day, but they rang me up still to see what going on.

    Security there was a nightmare, worked with an obviously disabled guy, who forgot to put his disabled badge on his car dashboard and they threatened to ban him from site (which would result in the sack as you couldn’t work remotely). The kicker was that they said we know you forgot to put the badge out, so they knew he was disabled as all car registrations are preregistered only way onsite.

    • SwizzleStick@lemmy.zip
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      27 minutes ago

      Most people in the UK do not memorise their NI number.

      Spend enough time talking to HMRC or DWP, and it just happens.

  • slazer2au@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    My old bank required you to have a password 12 characters long exactly, and to login you have to give the characters in specific places.

    I would ask you what are the 4th, 7th, and 11th letters of your password.

    Anyone want to guess why that aren’t my bank anymore?