Thread · HN Continuity

My hot take is that almost nobody should be setting _any_ length or complexity requirements on passwords. Instead just enforce the need for at least some kind of second factor, even if it's SMS, TOTP or a magic link by email.

If your password hash database is compromised you're screwed anyway, because dictionary attacks scale horizontally, even with slow hashes designed for passwords 'LickMyLiver123!!' isn't necessarily going to hold up just because it's 16 characters.

The average vocabulary of a 20 year old native English speaker is perhaps ~50,000 words and I bet when you apply some basic grammar rules, and pragmatic search paths like relying on tonnes of people just smashing !'s on the end of their usual password when a minimum length is enforced, those hashes start to fall quickly.