Security News > 2023 > June > Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris

Reynold drew the short straw and drove to Paris to install the rig and train users.

The client was sufficiently important that Reynold had to go to Paris - again.

"It took me about five seconds to realize that the client had changed the QWERTY keyboard that I installed for a French AZERTY keyboard."

The software Reynold installed was unaware of this French connection.

"The password was deeply hard coded in the software, linked to the actual keys and not to the letters of the password," Reynold explained.

"After inviting the client to either revert to using a QWERTY keyboard, or type 'pqsszord' instead of 'password,' everything worked again, and it was au revoir time."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/06/30/on_call/