Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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 @grahamcluley.com
 @[email protected]

Here’s a Microsoft support knowledgebase article from the dusty archives:

Support kbase article from Microsoft

Personally, I love the note which says:

Note that the number of required characters changes from 17,145 to 18,770 with the installation of SP1.

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But then I stumbled across this:

Zero length password

So, which is it Microsoft? Zero or 18770 characters?

Hat-tip: @david_navigator.


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "The AI Fix" and "Smashing Security" podcasts. Follow him on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, or drop him an email.

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