Password Checks - String Functions in Microsoft Access


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Password Checks

Kevin Robertson

6 months ago

I just built the Form below to change a users temporary password (generated with a button click by an Admin). It uses images to determine if the criteria has been met or not.

I used the On Change event for this.
It should be noted that you need to reference the Text property otherwise you will get an 'Invalid use of null' error.

If IsFound(NewPassword.Text, AllCaps) Then

	Kevin Robertson OP 6 months ago

	Kevin Robertson OP 6 months ago

	Sami Shamma 6 months ago
very professional looking. I like. I Like.

	Alex Hedley 6 months ago
Now you just need a strength meter :p Going from red to green 🔴🟠🟡🟢

	Kevin Robertson OP 6 months ago
Yeah. That would be neat. No idea how to do it but that would be neat. I'm guessing some overlapping Text Boxes or Rectangles would do it and simply control the visibility in code.

	Matt Hall 6 months ago
I made a radial gauge using a series of lines. I named them consecutively Line0 to Line100, Set the border width wide enough to overlap, and toggled visibility with a for/next loop. The needle (Line) position and slope are controlled in VBA using a touch of trig. You could do something similar with a bar. The form looks sharp.

	Alex Hedley 6 months ago
Could you use the techniques in Progress Bar or was something similar covered in a Dev lesson?

	Kevin Robertson OP 6 months ago
Yeah. I was thinking something similar. The full Progress Bar lessons were in Access Developer 18

	Kevin Robertson OP 6 months ago
I added a basic strength indicator to my Form. Looks pretty cool and works well.

	Kevin Robertson OP 6 months ago

	Kevin Robertson OP 6 months ago

Kevin Robertson OP

6 months ago

This is a snippet from my load event.
I do have other code that sets some other values but this is related to the password strength.

Details

Private Sub Form_Load()



    Dim Ctrl As Control, EmptyWidth As Long

    

    EmptyWidth = PasswordStrengthEmpty.Width



    For Each Ctrl In Me.Controls

        If Ctrl.ControlType = acRectangle Then

            If Left(Ctrl.Name, 16) = "PasswordStrength" Then

                Ctrl.Left = PasswordStrengthEmpty.Left

                Ctrl.Top = PasswordStrengthEmpty.Top

                If Ctrl.Name <> "PasswordStrengthEmpty" Then Ctrl.Visible = False

            End If

        End If

    Next

    

    PasswordStrengthVeryWeak.Width = EmptyWidth / 4

    PasswordStrengthWeak.Width = EmptyWidth / 2

    PasswordStrengthStrong.Width = (EmptyWidth / 2) + (EmptyWidth / 4)

    PasswordStrengthVeryStrong.Width = EmptyWidth



End Sub

	Alex Hedley 6 months ago
Love it!

	Matt Hall 6 months ago
Very nice.

Kevin Robertson OP

6 months ago

I decided to disable the Save button unless all the conditions for my password are met.
This has reduced the amount of code needed for my checks by about a third.

Details

Option Compare Binary

Option Explicit



Private Const NARROW_WIDTH As Long = 7680

Private Const WIDE_WIDTH As Long = 12600



Dim IsValidated As Boolean



Private Sub ValidatePassword()



    IsValidated = True

    

    If imgPasswordUpper.Picture = ImageFolder & PASSWORD_INVALID Then IsValidated = False

    If imgPasswordLower.Picture = ImageFolder & PASSWORD_INVALID Then IsValidated = False

    If imgPasswordNumber.Picture = ImageFolder & PASSWORD_INVALID Then IsValidated = False

    If imgPasswordSpecial.Picture = ImageFolder & PASSWORD_INVALID Then IsValidated = False

    If imgPasswordMinimum.Picture = ImageFolder & PASSWORD_INVALID Then IsValidated = False

    If imgPasswordMaximum.Picture = ImageFolder & PASSWORD_INVALID Then IsValidated = False

    If imgPasswordMatch.Picture = ImageFolder & PASSWORD_INVALID Then IsValidated = False



    If Not IsValidated Then

        btnSaveCredentials.Enabled = False

    Else

        btnSaveCredentials.Enabled = True

    End If

    

End Sub

I called this sub in the Change events for both NewPassword and ConfirmNewPassword.
Also now checking for duplicate Usernames.

Kevin Robertson OP

5 months ago

My temporary password is now generated to include Upper Case, Lower Case, Numbers and Special Characters. It will also always be 16 characters in length.

Details

Private Function GeneratePassword(Style As Integer) As String



    Dim Rand As Integer, FoundRand As Boolean

    

    Randomize

    If Style = 1 Then Rand = Int(Rnd * 25) + 65

    If Style = 2 Then Rand = Int(Rnd * 25) + 97

    If Style = 3 Then Rand = Int(Rnd * 9) + 48

    

    If Style = 4 Then

        FoundRand = False

        While Not FoundRand

            Rand = Int(Rnd * 104) + 33

            If Rand = 33 Or Rand = 35 Or Rand = 36 Or Rand = 37 Or _

                Rand = 43 Or Rand = 45 Or Rand = 64 Or Rand = 137 Then

                FoundRand = True

            End If

        Wend

    End If



    GeneratePassword = Chr(Rand)

    

End Function

The function is called as part of my button click event which also sends an email detailing the temporary credentials.
This is how the function is called in by button.

Details

    Password = ""

    While Len(Password) < 16

        Randomize

        Rand = Int(Rnd * 4) + 1

        Password = Password & GeneratePassword(Rand)

    Wend

	Kevin Yip 5 months ago
To measure password "strength," this page may offer some clues: https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm Type a password in the box, and you will see the estimated amount of time it would take for hackers to hack it. A weak password would only take seconds to crack, while a strong one would take trillions of years.

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