observation

I am writing this post just to express my concern that the Office 2000 passwords arent so difficult to recover in contrast to what it says in the password dialog box {that they cannot be recovered}

Lately I came across an application which managed to recover my 15 character long password in no time at all.

However, I would like to point out that when the password is a mixture of letters and numbers, the recovery was much longer and not always recovered.

What are your opinions please and do you think that by mixing the letters in lowercase and uppercase would harden the recovery ?

Thanks

 

1. 15 total characters is great. 12 should probably enough in most cases.
2. Avoid any words.
3. Avoid using any of your username string above 2 characters (that is, parts of your username in the same letter order).
4. Unusual capItALization is good.
5. Throwing in a couple of non-alpha-numeric characters like * is good.

mIpAS*s2#3Zz9* would probably drive the thing nuts and prevent a password crack for days (if ever). But super tough to remember. I have an easier time with things that have some relationship to reality. For instance, my birthday is Jan 20, 1945 (01 20 45) so I will usually incorporate it - sort of since I can add a number to each piece - and then a near-word with strange capitalizations. I only use Outlook at work where exchange server uses my domain logon so can't say for sure it will take the odd characters but I imagine it will.

mI02*19#46!hOHe would be one I could remember but that should be a bear to crack. My but mis-spelled and mis-capitalized, birthday with numbers added then subtracted then added, Ho & He but mis-capitalized and the odd character just for fun.

Try that one on your crack program if you want. I think it will stand up pretty well.

 

Looks like a bunch fly fishing lures to me!

Course I don't know nuthin bout fly fishing!

Mike

 

Mike - it is the instructions for making my favorite carp bait. Just written in code since we keep that sort of thing secret here in NC. Lots of lakes with money tourneys for carp so no way would I give my bait recipes to anyone.