apache/answer · error

failed to generate valid password after %d retries

Error message

failed to generate valid password after %d retries

What it means

Sentinel error raised in generateRandomPasswordWithRetry after maxRetries (10) attempts where generateRandomPassword itself never returned an error but every generated password failed checker.CheckPassword. It is a generic guard indicating the random generator plus policy combination never converged, with no specific user input at fault.

Source

Thrown at internal/cli/reset_password.go:214

func generateRandomPasswordWithRetry() (string, error) {
	var password string
	var err error

	for range maxRetries {
		password, err = generateRandomPassword(defaultRandomPasswordLength)
		if err != nil {
			continue
		}
		if err := checker.CheckPassword(password); err == nil {
			return password, nil
		}
	}

	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to generate valid password after %d retries", maxRetries)
}

func getPasswordInput(prompt string) (string, error) {
	fmt.Print(prompt)
	password, err := term.ReadPassword(int(os.Stdin.Fd()))
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	fmt.Println()
	return string(password), nil
}

func generateRandomPassword(length int) (string, error) {
	if length < len(charset) {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("password length must be at least %d", len(charset))
	}

	bytes := make([]byte, length)

View on GitHub (pinned to 3b9f137061)

Solutions

1. Generate a longer random password so candidates satisfy the policy more often (length must be >= len(charset))
2. Inspect why candidates keep failing CheckPassword — either crypto/rand failures or an overly strict policy
3. Manually pass a policy-compliant password via the prompt or the --password flag instead of relying on generation
4. Increase maxRetries if the password policy is known to reject valid candidates frequently

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at internal/cli/reset_password.go:214 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/answer@3b9f137061 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7f476e6aaf14c48f. Report an issue: GitHub.