14 DAY TRIAL // The generalized customer perception is that Microsoft and security are by no means two complementary concepts. And that by using software products from the Redmond company, you inherently expose yourselves to an universe of risks, threats and attacks. Well, Microsoft has taken the necessary steps to correct this perspective with the introduction of the 18,770 characters long password. Sure, it will be a real bitch remembering, typing it in or even coming up with it, but think of all that protection...
When you?ll spend half a day just to login in to your own account, there's no chance that anybody else will be able to do it. Did I say half a day? Well, you are free to approximate your own time period for managing such a password. Just think about it... no more hacks! Ever! Just make sure to write your password down on a piece of paper in case you forget it.
Right, now obviously, Microsoft is not introducing 18,770 characters long passwords as security features, although after the mitigations that went into Windows Vista you would be tempted to think so. However, the password is actually part of an error message reading something like this: "Your password must be at least 18770 characters and cannot repeat any of your previous 30689 passwords. Please type a different password. Type a password that meets these requirements in both text boxes."
This is a freak occurrence associated with Windows 2000. "If you log on to an MIT realm, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE, click Change Password, type your existing MIT password, and then type a new, simple password that does not pass the dictionary check in Kadmind, you may receive the error message. Note that the number of required characters changes from 17,145 to 18,770 with the installation of SP1," Microsoft informed in Knowledge Base article 276304 via Digg.
In order to resolve the issue simply install the latest service pack available for Windows 2000.