apache/answer · error

generate random password failed: %w

Error message

generate random password failed: %w

What it means

Fires in promptForPassword when the user leaves the new-password prompt empty, and generateRandomPasswordWithRetry cannot produce a policy-valid random password — either every attempt errored generating crypto-random bytes, or 10 generated candidates all failed CheckPassword. At fault is the system CSPRNG availability / random generation pipeline, not user input.

Source

Thrown at internal/cli/reset_password.go:170

	fmt.Printf("Password has been successfully updated for user: %s\n", email)
	fmt.Println("All login sessions have been cleared")

	return nil
}

// promptForPassword prompts for a password
func promptForPassword() (string, error) {
	for {
		input, err := getPasswordInput("Please input new password (empty to generate random password): ")
		if err != nil {
			return "", err
		}

		if input == "" {
			password, err := generateRandomPasswordWithRetry()
			if err != nil {
				return "", fmt.Errorf("generate random password failed: %w", err)
			}
			fmt.Printf("Generated random password: %s\n", password)
			fmt.Println("Please save this password in a secure location")
			return password, nil
		}

		if err := checker.CheckPassword(input); err != nil {
			fmt.Printf("Password validation failed: %v\n", err)
			fmt.Println("Please try again")
			continue
		}

		confirmPwd, err := getPasswordInput("Please confirm new password: ")
		if err != nil {
			return "", err
		}

		if input != confirmPwd {

View on GitHub (pinned to 3b9f137061)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped error from generateRandomPasswordWithRetry for the root cause (usually crypto/rand failure)
2. Re-run the command; crypto/rand read failures are typically transient
3. Check that /dev/urandom is accessible and the host entropy source is healthy
4. Verify filesystem and OS-level permissions are intact in the runtime environment

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at internal/cli/reset_password.go:170 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/742d63505073e945. Report an issue: GitHub.