Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!amd70!fortune!wdl1!jbn
From: jbn@wdl1.UUCP (John B. Nagle)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Obvious password detector / eliminator
Message-ID: <199@wdl1.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Apr-84 15:40:36 EST
Article-I.D.: wdl1.199
Posted: Thu Apr 19 15:40:36 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Apr-84 01:07:34 EST
Lines: 11


     I have posted a small subroutine to net.sources which is intended for use
in passwd(I) for to prevent users from picking easily guessable passwords.
This subroutine will prevent the use of any word in the Unix dictionary as
a password yet requires no files to make this test.  It also prevents the
use of numeric strings, repeated letters, and various other common sequences.
Yet any random string of eight characters has a 95% chance of being an
acceptable password.
     There is no Bell code in this routine and it has been tested on machines
with 16, 32, and 36 bit words, and works without change on all of them.

					John Nagle