on 28-04-2023 19:58
As i haven't changed my passwords in a while I thought I would change my ntlworld email password that I use to get mail into external gmail app via IMAP . This is the main email address I use to log into my virgin media account. So I followed the instructions after logging into my virgin media account -> Account Settings -> Virgin Media Mail Settings -> Generate New App Password.
This worked and gave me a new auto generated password which works fine with my gmail email app. However I would prefer to set my own password rather than use the auto-generated one. So my question is 'how do I change this password that was auto generated' ? Is this possible or do I have to only use the auto-generated one as this doesn't seem to secure?
on 28-04-2023 20:09
@cxdblues Good question. As far as I understand you can only use the auto generated app password. This is consistent with the way that Microsoft app passwords work. I'm not an expert on security so can't really comment on the security side of things, other than to say that this is a welcome move by VM towards multi factor authentication.
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on 29-04-2023 13:11
My concern is the password it generates, although it is long it consists of normal words, no numbers or special characters and has a defined format, so imo not very secure for an engine to crack.
29-04-2023 14:24 - edited 29-04-2023 14:26
I'm not familiar with Virgin Media's new app specific passwords, but the three random words advice is in line with advice from the NCSC
Tim
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on 29-04-2023 14:50
The key thing about passwords is that they should be unique but above all long. It's actually been known for some time that adding special characters and numbers doesn't actually make a password much stronger. What it does is make is more difficult to remember and increase the risk that it gets written down on the proverbial sticky note on the monitor, or that it gives a false sense of security and the temptation to use it on more than one site is greater.
As per the famous XKCD comic, a password composed of four random words of reasonable size is far harder to crack or guess, than say Pa55W0rd!&JD, which would satisfy most sites password requirements, over ten characters, includes upper and lower case, numbers and a symbol or two - so all good right?
As humans are actually very bad at coming up with truly random characters, often these 'super secret' passwords incorporate elements which are meaningful to the user, numbers that are actually significant dates, letters which are initials etc. All of which can easily be determined or worked out from what many, openly post on social media forums!
What the machine generates for you as a password will almost certainly be far stronger and easier to remember than anything you could come up with. However I do agree, that you should have the option to use your own password if you so wish, but it certainly wouldn't be fair to say that this would increase security.
on 29-04-2023 17:38
Regrettably it is still possible to set an insecure Account password thereby negating the benefit of an app password, i.e. Password123.
on 22-06-2023 15:38
Hi
I have changed my App password for my main VM email account. Do I need to do the same for each of my VM email addresses via an App.
on 22-06-2023 16:22
Thank you so much for your post and welcome back to the forums.
If you would like to update your passwords for all emails you can do, but you do not need to reset them just because the main one has been changed.
on 22-06-2023 17:01
Thanks