Enforcing password complexity for private keys

[David Milet]

Believe me we have long and passionate discussions about passwords length and complexity.

The question in my post is purely technical.


> On Apr 30, 2019, at 13:51, Michał Górny <mgorny at gentoo.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 2019-04-30 at 13:40 -0400, David Milet wrote:
>> Yes, we’re considering using smart cards or usb devices like Yubikey.
>> Do those enforce password complexity?
>> 
>> To answer suggestions in other replies, our developers are savvy enough, and we do have recurring training in place to stress the importance of good passwords. But we know also that some developers will choose the weakest password the system allows, making them the weakest link.
>> 
> 
> I dare say trying to enforce strong passwords via policy is usually
> a bad idea.  If you can't convince user to use and remember a good
> password, trying to force it via policy usually results either in:
> 
> a. passwords being noted down on paper, phone, etc., or
> 
> b. passwords becoming more predictable.
> 
> I can't know whether your users would actually do that but it's not
> uncommon problem that e.g. if you require password containing one digit
> and one special character, you replace trivial passwords with trivial
> passwords followed by '1!'.
> 
> -- 
> Best regards,
> Michał Górny
> 
>