[LEDE-DEV] [PATCH] utils/busybox: prevent weak root passwords

[Dan Lüdtke]

Hi David,

thanks for the fast response!

> On 17 Feb 2017, at 11:54, David Lang <david at lang.hm> wrote:
> But deciding that you know better than the admin of the system is not.

Not that I am a fan of telling admins what to do, but do you see any chance that we  can get an consistent and enforceable approach to *minimum* requirements, e.g. minimum password length? Maybe by using a configuration variable? Havon only the GUI enforce minimum password length and not the CLI is rather inconsistent (some may say useless or even confusing).

> 
> you don't have any idea what the security environment is for the system, or why the admin is selecting that password.
> 
> It's not just a busybox thing to allow the root user to select a password that is shorter than 'recommended', that's normal behavior on *nix systems and has been for decades, even as the 'recommendations' have changed.

I rather see this as a "LEDE" system not a standard *nix system, even though it is based on Linux and runs a Linux kernel. The question is, is this a more a "product" or just another Linux system?

"has been for decades" is not a good argument. The others are. But that one is just not.


Cheers,

Dan