AbstractBaseUser.set_unusable_password() why a random string instead of an empty string?

[Jon Dufresne]

When set_unusable_password() is called on a user object, the user's password is set to a random string starting with "!" [0]. The "!" is then used by is_password_usable() [1] to determine that this password isn't usable.

My question is, why is a random string used instead of an empty string? An empty string would appear to make the code both simpler and slightly more efficient. Is the random string more secure or solving some other issue I'm not aware of?

I tested this idea and all tests pass: https://github.com/jdufresne/django/commit/2332194b449fe4a336c8ea515221955ba0ea3aeb

The change is relatively easy as all interactions with unusable passwords are nicely abstracted by functions

Thoughts on me following through with this code simplification?

[0] https://github.com/django/django/blob/90c3b11e873a326219a68c14a3b5dca0181e7b3c/django/contrib/auth/hashers.py#L78
[1] https://github.com/django/django/blob/90c3b11e873a326219a68c14a3b5dca0181e7b3c/django/contrib/auth/hashers.py#L27

[Alexander Hill]

Hi Jon,

Here's the ticket where this was proposed: https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/20079

And the commit that implements it: https://github.com/django/django/commit/aeb1389442d0f9669edf6660b747fd10693b63a7

Cheers,

Alex

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[Ramiro Morales]

Quick perusal if the history and blame log of that file reveals some interesting data:

https://github.com/django/django/commit/2c4fe761a0e2b28e2c5c3b4bc506ee06824a443d

https://github.com/django/django/commit/aeb1389442d0f9669edf6660b747fd10693b63a7 and its associated ticket #20079

I suspect the answer to your quesin lies somewhere ther.

Regards,

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Ramiro Morales
@ramiromorales

[Jon Dufresne]

Thanks Ramiro and Alex. That does clear it up and helps.

I withdraw the suggestion.

On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 7:02 PM, Alexander Hill <al...@hill.net.au> wrote:

Hi Jon,

Here's the ticket where this was proposed: https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/20079

And the commit that implements it: https://github.com/django/django/commit/aeb1389442d0f9669edf6660b747fd10693b63a7

Cheers,

Alex

On Thu, 20 Oct 2016 at 08:20 Jon Dufresne <jon.du...@gmail.com> wrote:

When set_unusable_password() is called on a user object, the user's password is set to a random string starting with "!" [0]. The "!" is then used by is_password_usable() [1] to determine that this password isn't usable.

My question is, why is a random string used instead of an empty string? An empty string would appear to make the code both simpler and slightly more efficient. Is the random string more secure or solving some other issue I'm not aware of?

I tested this idea and all tests pass: https://github.com/jdufresne/django/commit/2332194b449fe4a336c8ea515221955ba0ea3aeb

The change is relatively easy as all interactions with unusable passwords are nicely abstracted by functions

Thoughts on me following through with this code simplification?

[0] https://github.com/django/django/blob/90c3b11e873a326219a68c14a3b5dca0181e7b3c/django/contrib/auth/hashers.py#L78
[1] https://github.com/django/django/blob/90c3b11e873a326219a68c14a3b5dca0181e7b3c/django/contrib/auth/hashers.py#L27

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