Re: Login into accounts with german umlaut - also password security

On Monday 03 December 2018 09:12:48 Thierry de Coulon wrote: N.B. Just so I don't hijack this thread, I have changed the heading a little. If readers have quality complaints, please direct them to the usual places. I gave up on accents, special characters, etc., a long time ago, for filenames, etc., in *nix systems. As the spelling of my surname, in some German instances, contains an umlaut (long since lost), and as there are some who may want to preserve such items, I avoided comment. However, the trouble it causes in *nix systems, or in transferring files among different systems, is not worth it. For passwords, however, (and NOT login names), I totally disagree. All those quirky characters help to protect your security from script kiddies with password crackers. The difference between brute-force cracking a passwords of, say, 10 characters, varies between something like 2 hours and 20 million years, when the only difference is using all those "extra characters". I read all this somewhere, and don't have any direct practical experience of password cracking; except once, about 20 years ago now, when my own password got cracked - after which, I set myself to learn Linux and make for myself a more secure system. So don't try to pin my down on my authority for this statement; but if I must, I will look up some references on password security just to prove my point that I am an insufferable pedant. Most *nix systems, so far as I know, don't have problems with "extra characters" for passwords (but I haven't tried umlauts). I did note that Q4OS, though, would not allow me to use extra characters on its first installation; I never got farther than that, and looked for something else, and hope that this isn't a sign of things to come (i.e., less secure passwords). Bill