this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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privacy

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What is it with websites restricting passwords to 8 - 16 characters? Is there some technical limitation to their system?? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 6 days ago by Showroom7561@lemmy.ca to c/privacy@lemmy.ca
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It's infuriating to create a "strong password" with letters, numbers, upper and lowercase, symbols, and non-repeating text... but it has to be only 8 to 16 characters long.

That's not a "strong" password, random characters or not.

Is there a limitation that somehow prevents these sites from allowing more than 16 characters?

I'm talking government websites, not just forums. It seems crazy to me.

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[–] wesker 55 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's informative. It informs you that you shouldn't use the site, if possible. Because it's also suggestive of poor security practices in general.

[–] MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah, imagine my shock and disappointment when encountering such limitations signing up for credit monitoring (by one of the big 3). It's not enough that my employer has a breach, no. But also finding out that one of the big players has some ridiculous 12 character alphanumeric password restriction. Absolute dogshit.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

A random 12-character password should take years to crack. But they're probably also storing it as plaintext, so no need to crack, just breach the DB (which is probably also insecure).