←back to thread

430 points tambourine_man | 6 comments | | HN request time: 0.782s | source | bottom
Show context
mr_mitm ◴[] No.41879391[source]
I'm glad someone is thinking about UX and ergonomics when it comes to passwords. Most people I interact with have by now realized that generating passwords is a good idea. But if you are already generating the password, please do not include special characters. I regularly use different keyboard layouts (sometimes it is not even clear which layout is active, like in the vSphere web console), and the fact that passwords are often not shown on the screen when typing them makes for terrible UX and causes frustration.

The usual advice about character classes is only for casual users who don't know what makes a secure password. Entropy is the deciding factor: Ten random lower case letters is much more secure than "Summer2024!", which satisfies most password rules and has more characters.

Personally I stick to lower case letters for things like my Netflix password or Wifi key, because typing with a TV remote can be a huge pain. To keep a similar entropy, just increase the length by one or two characters.

replies(10): >>41879469 #>>41879535 #>>41879556 #>>41879734 #>>41879735 #>>41880345 #>>41880499 #>>41881423 #>>41881471 #>>41883418 #
1. hoten ◴[] No.41883418[source]
Just today I had to reset my Dropbox password b/c it had a "`" character, and I was trying to use a self-service printer at FedEx. Their weird touch keyboard didn't have backticks.
replies(3): >>41883765 #>>41883846 #>>41885057 #
2. ivanjermakov ◴[] No.41883765[source]
Some characters felt illegal to use in passwords, like starting your password with space. Not only feels, but will not pass validation during sign up in many places.
3. sebastiennight ◴[] No.41883846[source]
You're entering your Dropbox password on other people's machines? Was there no option to just share the document as a public link or something?
replies(2): >>41883961 #>>41885063 #
4. hoten ◴[] No.41883961[source]
I reset my password again shortly after.
5. RockRobotRock ◴[] No.41885057[source]
those things are dogshit. It's really incredible how terrible and difficult Kinkos has made the process of printing. The email service has also never worked for me.
6. ◴[] No.41885063[source]