r/webdev • u/Beatsu • Aug 02 '26

Question Tab as password?

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SAS disallows spaces in your password. My password manager suggested an invalid (but secure) password.

So now that I have to make my own password: Out of spite, hypothetically, what implications could having tabs in my password have?

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u/devshore Aug 02 '26

Yes, if you strawman it and limit it to variations of “password” like “paSSword123” it loses. However, if you dont strawman, and have a password like “h7SR&$nzWff”, it beats “morninghouserainbowtree” because there are fewer combinations of 4 words let alone that your strawman applies to your case where people will choose 4 words from a very small pool of actually-used words.

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u/AshleyJSheridan Aug 02 '26

So, imagine a user has that as their computer login password.

No password vault to rely on, they have to type this in manually.

This is straight up going onto a post-it under their keyboard.

And now their computer and everything on it is completely open to everyone, from Janet in accounts to Kevin the cleaner.

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u/devshore Aug 02 '26

Another strawman - narrowing it down to a scenario where they only have to memorize one password (their computer login). Nobody is going to memorize their 4 word combos on hundreds of things they use passwords on. However, they can memorize a password for a self-hosted password manager. In fact, they can even menorize a password with uppercase/lowercase/numbers/special characters.

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u/AshleyJSheridan Aug 02 '26

It's not a strawman, it's a legitimate scenario! Dude, it's a well-known fact that when tasked with creating a password of random characters, people will create something that's easy to remember, especially if they can't use a password manager to help them. I listed the most common scenario where people absolutely won't have a password manager. You just listed the second most common scenario, thanks!

Just because completely valid and very common use cases don't agree with your position, doesn't make them strawman arguments. I would heavily suggest you go look up the definition of that, because I don't think you really know what it means...