Re: Ascii characters as passwords?

From: Dale Shaw <dale.shaw_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 09:57:26 +1100

Hi,

On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 8:47 AM, <groupstudy_at_nyms.net> wrote:
> Does anyone know if you can use ascii characters as passwords in IOS? I know normally you can use Esc-Q to let you put in a special character like a ? - but can you do ascii characters like little smiley faces or boxes? The stuff that's not on the keyboard?

You're talking about 'high' or 'extended' ASCII characters.

From: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/fundamentals/command/reference/cf_ap1.html

"Extended ASCII character sets are not generally recommended for use
in Cisco IOS commands."

From:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/security/command/reference/sec_e1.html#wp1034593

[An enabled password/enable secret] is defined as follows:
Must contain from 1 to 25 uppercase and lowercase alphanumeric characters
- Must not have a number as the first character
- Can have leading spaces, but they are ignored. However, intermediate
and trailing spaces are recognized.
- Can contain the question mark (?) character if you precede the
question mark with the key combination Crtl-v when you create the
password

From my reading, "username [password|secret]" must conform with the
same definition (up to 25 characters), but there's a one-liner that
injects a but of doubt around "username secret", specifically: "The
secret can consist of any string of up to 11 ASCII characters". This
may be a specific limitation to secrets when used with CHAP
authentication.

Anyway, I suggest you have a play.

cheers,
Dale

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Tue Dec 01 2009 - 09:57:26 ART

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