apache/answer · error

password length must be at least %d

Error message

password length must be at least %d

What it means

Validation guard in generateRandomPassword: rejects the requested length because it is smaller than len(charset)=4, the number of character classes that must each appear once to guarantee policy compliance. The at-fault input is the length argument; with the internal default of 12 this can only fire if the constant is changed or the function is called with a smaller length.

Source

Thrown at internal/cli/reset_password.go:229

	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)
	for i, charsetItem := range charset {
		charIndex, err := rand.Int(rand.Reader, big.NewInt(int64(len(charsetItem))))
		if err != nil {
			return "", err
		}
		bytes[i] = charsetItem[charIndex.Int64()]
	}

	fullCharset := strings.Join(charset, "")
	for i := len(charset); i < length; i++ {
		charIndex, err := rand.Int(rand.Reader, big.NewInt(int64(len(fullCharset))))
		if err != nil {
			return "", err
		}
		bytes[i] = fullCharset[charIndex.Int64()]

View on GitHub (pinned to 3b9f137061)

Solutions

1. Call generateRandomPassword with a length at least equal to len(charset) (one per charset character)
2. Update the defaultRandomPasswordLength constant to satisfy the charset-coverage requirement
3. Simplify or shrink the charset if a shorter generated password is required by policy

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at internal/cli/reset_password.go:229 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/e68fc5a4b46ac56b. Report an issue: GitHub.