Hacker News Reader

Comment by wh-uws | Hacker News Reader

I have waited for this for so long. I'm glad someone finally took it up and and more importantly that its on a site as popular as dropbox. (this way hopefully the thinking will gain some traction)

Every time I'm forced to have a password with 3 or 4 character classes I sigh and think of that xkcd comic

Edit: also try typing the password from the xkcd comic here https://www.dropbox.com/register

nice touch

View on HN

For the lazy, if you enter "correcthorsebatterystaple" the password strength gets set to "lol" with an info-box that reads something along the lines of "Don't take the webcomic too seriously. :)"

...but, oddly enough, not "correct horse battery staple" (at least, that's how I'm used to writing passphrases; I guess the comic could be interpreted either way.)

I find that message misleading. The xkcd comic does have a point, and thus should be taken seriously. (Despite the obvious downside that those passwords take longer to type, which is why I still prefer short, cryptic passwords.)

So a better message might be:

"Don't follow the webcomic too closely. :)"

Its saying dont use that particular password. Any attacker of this script would know what it was inspired by and attempt that password in a dictionary.

Rendering it about as useless as 123456789 in this instance

It actually says, "Woah there, don't take advice from a web-comic too literally!"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com