Subject: Minimum password length 8 chars? [HPUX, 2.4.2beta11]

From: furio ercolessi <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1996 1:03:29 MET

Hi all,

I am setting up wu-2.4.2-academ[BETA-11] on HP-UX 9.05 (HP's cc).
I used default settings #undef PARANOID, #undef SKEY, #undef SHADOW_PASSWORD.

I have spent a few hours trying to understand why everything
works fine for some users, while other users get
	ftp> dir
	200 PORT command successful.
	150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
	421 Service not available, remote server has closed connection
the first time they try to use 'ls' or 'dir' after they are
successfully connected.

The surprising answer is that things work well for user whose
password is at least 8 characters long, while those with 6
(our minimum) or 7 characters experience the problem above.
Interestingly, the problem is also present for user 'ftp',
while it disappears for user 'anonymous'.

Now, requiring massive amounts of users to change their password
is doable, but kinda of a nightmare for our user support people.
Is there some compilation or configuration trick to avoid this
bizarre problem, or am I the first to run into it?
Any suggestion is welcome, and Merry Christmas and Happy 1997
to everybody!

furio ercolessi
[email-masked]