Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Password composition rules
Raised as a usability problem by 12 people on Hacker News over 13 years (2012–2024), in 11 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Password rules force hard-to-remember passwords, causing reuse and resetsUnreviewed
20122026- Forced monthly password changes with history checks make it hard to create acceptable new passwords2024-09-10
- Forced character rules and rotation make passwords hard to remember and lead to writing them down2024-07-14
- Password rules revealed one at a time only after each failed submission, forcing repeated retries2023-02-15
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 12 complaints
- Forced monthly password changes with history checks make it hard to create acceptable new passwords2024-09-10
- Forced character rules and rotation make passwords hard to remember and lead to writing them down2024-07-14
- Password rules revealed one at a time only after each failed submission, forcing repeated retries2023-02-15
- Rule images are hard to read and cut off; can't page to next example2023-02-15
- Rules are hidden until you fail, forcing guesswork through repeated trial and error2022-08-29
- Forced frequent password changes made staff share a public password instead2019-05-30
- Forced to create passwords too complex to memorize2018-02-06
- Proposed password solution is pointlessly bad UX for most sites2018-02-04
- Sites restrict password length and characters, forcing manual edits and blocking logins after registration2017-10-25
- Special-character rules force weak memorized passwords instead of long strings2017-07-26
- Site password rules force hard-to-remember passwords, making reuse and resets a constant hassle2013-09-13
- Arbitrary password rules and forced resets make users pick weak, memorable passwords2012-11-07