Virgin Media Community

[hippyclone]

Due to an email issue a VM tech had to reset my password which solved my issue, but now I want to change it back to what it was previously.

Unfortunately the 'change password' page isn't letting me do that because it contains a word which I presume is on an obscene word list - That would be correct, and one of the reasons I chose it; it's perfect security for never repeating it even if asked.

I can't see a problem with whatever I choose my password to be as it should be 'write only', only knowable by me.

So how do I set the password I want to use ?

[Graham_A]

If your chosen password doesn't match the current VM requirements then you will need to choose a different one.  I don't believe that VM has an obsenity filter for passwords, but it won't accept a password that includes a recognisable word.

[hippyclone]

The password it has accepted contains recognised words, so it's not that.

Added : Is there any documentation on what VM considers acceptable and unacceptable ? All it says is 8 to 10 characters, letters and numbers only, first must be a letter. I was quite surprised it wouldn't take more. It had marked my choice as "good" even though it then failed to accept it.

[用心棒]

I agree that it is unlikely Virgin Media specifically filter obscene words and more a case of such passwords are insecure as evident from Have I Been Pwned > Passwords:

• obscene phrase with sequential numerical padding has been seen in data breaches 76,066 times
  
• the word “monkey” with sequential numerical padding has been seen in data breaches 87,340 times; worryingly this password was not rejected by Virgin Media.
  

If you must use a Virgin Media email account then: (a) use a randomly generated password that conforms to the restrictive (less secure) password policy; (b) do not use it for anything of importance.

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[hippyclone]

It's not an obscene word with numerical padding, it's a bit more obtuse than that. What I am using now isn't so very different to what I wanted. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if it accepted just a single letter change which would move my choice from obscene to acceptable.

And I'd just add that wouldn't be "bigger" for South Park fans should anyone wrongly think I was that way inclined. It's just a very strong rude word.

[Akua_A]

Hi @hippyclone,

Welcome back to our community forums and thank you for your query regarding this.

Due to the nature of your previous email issue, we typically advise you to use a password never used before as well as to run an antivirus scan on all devices. This would be the reason the system will not permit the old password used before.

Please do let us know if you need any further help.

Thanks,

[hippyclone]

Thanks. It seems it's not just advice; it appears that is enforced.

If I had known I couldn't change my password back to what it had been I would have pursued other solutions to the problem before letting the VM Tech change my password.

But it's done now and it seems there's nothing I can do about it.

It would be useful if some some explanation were added to the message which appears when selected passwords are rejected as not acceptable.