Mac OS X: Effective Password Length of Eight Characters

The effective password length for Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server is eight characters. You may type more characters, but they are ignored.
Symptom

The System Preferences and Server Admin applications allow you to create passwords longer than eight characters. You can type more than eight characters when using your password, but characters after the eighth are ignored.

Note: This also applies to remote login, via telnet or rlogin for example.



Solution

For information on how to create a secure password with eight characters, see technical document 106521, "Mac OS X: How to Choose a Secure Password".
Published Date: Oct 10, 2016