NAME

Data::Password::Check - sanity check passwords

DESCRIPTION

Users can be lazy. If you're a perl programmer this is a good thing. If you're choosing a password this is a bad thing.

This module performs some sanity checks on passwords. Details on checks than can be performed are described below.

SYNOPSIS

Basic use of the module is as follows:

  use Data::Password::Check;

  # check a password
  my $pwcheck = Data::Password::Check->check({
    'password' => $some_password
  });

  # did we have any errors?
  if ($pwcheck->has_errors) {
    # print the errors
      print(
       join("\n", @{ $pwcheck->error_list }),
       "\n"
      );
  }

PUBLIC METHODS

These methods are publically available. Use them to your heart's content.

check($proto,$options)

This is the main function for this module. You must pass one mandatory value in the $options hash-reference - a password:

  # check a password
  $result = Data::Password::Check->check({'password' => $pwd_to_check});

There are other options that may be passed to invoke further password tests if required:

• tests

  set this to a list of test names to replace the list of tests performed by the module

  e.g. tests => [ 'length' ] will make the module perfoem the length check only

• tests_append

  set this to a list of additional tests to perform. This is useful if you want to call more tests than are in the default list, or to include your own tests when inheriting from this module.

  e.g. test => [ 'mytest1', 'mytest2' ] will make the module perform two extra tests (assuming they exist) mytest1 and mytest2.

has_errors($class)

This function is used to determine if there were any errors found while sanity checking the supplied password. It does not return the errors themselves.

Returns 1 if there were errors, 0 otherwise

error_list($class)

This function returns an array-reference to a list of the error messages. If there are no errors undef is returned.

AVAILABLE CHECKS

By default the module will perform all checks listed below. You can limit the number of checks by passing a list of desired tests via the tests option when calling check(). e.g.

  Data::Password::Check->check({
    ...
    'tests' => [ 'length' ], # check only that the password meets a minimum-length requirement
    ...
  });

alphanumeric_only

Make sure the password only contains a-z, A-Z and 0-9 characters.

alphanumeric

Make sure the password contains one of each from the following sets: a-z, A-Z and 0-9

length

Make sure the password it at least 6 characters long. If min_length was passed as an option to check(), this value will be used instead, assuming it's a positive integer.

mixed_case

Make sure the password is mixes case, i.e. not all lower case, nor all upper case

diverse_characters

Make sure the password is contains a diversity of character group types (uppercase, lower case, digits, symbols). By default, at least one character group must be present in the password (which any password will satisfy - override this to invoke the test). If diversity_required was passed as an option to check(), this value will be used instead.

silly

Make sure the password isn't a known silly word (e.g 'password' is a bad choice for a password).

The default list contains qwerty, and password only. You may choose to replace this list of words or to add your own to the end of the list.

If you wish to replace the list of silly-words, you should pass them in via the options when calling check(), as 'silly_words'. e.g.

  Data::Password::Check->check({
    ...
    'silly_words' => [ 'my', 'silly', 'words' ],
    ...
  });

If you would like to add words to the existing list, you should pass them in via the 'silly_words_append' option when calling check(). e.g.

  Data::Password::Check->check({
    ...
    'silly_words_append' => [ 'more', 'silly', 'words' ],
    ...
  });

All matching is case-insensitive, and if you choose to append words, duplicates will be omitted.

repeated

Make sure the password isn't a single character repeated, e.g. 'aaaaaaaaaa'.

PRIVATE METHODS

These methods are private to this module. If you choose to use them outside the module, all bets are off.

_do_checks($self)

This function calls each required test in turn. It's an internal function called within check().

_add_error($class,$message)

This function is used to add an error message to the internal store. The errors can later be retrieved using the error_list() method.

_skipped_test($class,$testname)

This function exists so that it's possible to work out if a test was skipped because "something went wrong" - usually because of an invalid option passed in via the check() options.

This function was written to enable some tests in the "make test" phase of installing the module.

AUTHOR

Chisel Wright <chiselwright@berlios.de>

CONTRIBUTORS

Dermot McNally CPANID: DERMOT

PROJECT HOMEPAGE

This project can be found at BerliOS: http://developer.berlios.de/projects/d-p-check/

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (C) 2005-2007 by Chisel Wright

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.2 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

cpanm Data::Password::Check

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Data::Password::Check