Regex Password validation

tcf22 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a pretty straight forward question. Is there a way to verify that a password has at least 1 number, 1 letter, and 1 special character in one regex.

I did it like this, but I would rather not use 3 regexes

if(($new_password !~ /\d/) || 
   ($new_password !~ /[a-zA-Z]/) || 
   ($new_password !~ /\W/))
  {
        return (0, 'Your password must contain at least 1 letter, 1 nu
+mber, and 1 special character');
  }
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Re: Regex Password validation by dws (Chancellor) on May 29, 2003 at 22:09 UTC
Is there a way to verify that a password has at least 1 number, 1 letter, and 1 special character in one regex. This thread discusses a nearly identical question, and the more general problem of how to structure your code to deal with inevitable changes in password requirements.	[reply]
Re: Re: Regex Password validation by tcf22 (Priest) on May 29, 2003 at 22:58 UTC
Thanks. That sent me in the right direction. I'm probably going to leave the code the way it is, to keep it more maintainable, but I couldn't think of how to do it in one regex. So if there is something I can't figure out, I just gotta try.	[reply]
Re: Regex Password validation by phydeauxarff (Priest) on May 29, 2003 at 23:12 UTC
Rather than re-invent the wheel, we use Crypt::Cracklib to keep our users in check. Check it out, it might save you some effort.	[reply]