Re:Tell HN: Zoom truncates passwords to 32 chars
by freehunter on Wednesday April 01, 2020 @12:19PM
(#22750377)
I used to work infosec at a financial institution and I can explain why this is: the online banking systems have historically been extensions of the phone system. When bank-by-phone was popular, you’d have a four digit PIN to authenticate yourself. When they moved online, they used the same backend system but just doubled the required length of the PIN.
So 8 digits or maybe 12 or 16 indicates the system runs on a modified bank by phone system. That also means they have to restrict password characters to things that would work on a phone keypad.
Another place I worked had the same problem with passwords because any password that you use might have to be entered into a handheld scanner in the warehouse. And those handhelds didn’t have full keyboards so you could only use characters that exist on the handheld’s keyboard.
So 8 digits or maybe 12 or 16 indicates the system runs on a modified bank by phone system. That also means they have to restrict password characters to things that would work on a phone keypad.
Another place I worked had the same problem with passwords because any password that you use might have to be entered into a handheld scanner in the warehouse. And those handhelds didn’t have full keyboards so you could only use characters that exist on the handheld’s keyboard.