AC RT87U FW defect?

[dawgfaneff]

Seems as though I have uncovered a defect. This is with Asus FW Version 3.0.0.4.376.2769.

When setting an admin account PW of 100 mixed case characters, HTTP listener becomes unresponsive. UI can't be reached but Internet is available.

Details:
1. Set admin password. No other changes to FW are made. I tried to use

6ZoMJm&LKcqYf5@l%D%Pc#KP@nKe6My9BaPj*2Rm9Yp8KeWef%QoOE7kN*UKC6W@BSItc5qHdMtgBBhpKEiPwKHWmiI&jBPHBisX

2. Apply settings. Instead of the Please Wait % spinner, you immediately see the error,

"Settings have been updated. Web page will now refresh.
Changes have been made to the IP address or port number. You will now be disconnected from RT-AC68U.
To access the settings of RT-AC68U, reconnect to the wireless network and use the updated IP address and port number".

3. Using diff browser, clearing cache don't help (as it's not a browser issue). power cycling router doesn't work either. Only remedy is to reset to factory defaults and start over.

After chasing down the "Settings have been updated..." error red herring for a few hours it turns out that it's not browser specific (same behavior with IE, FF, Chrome). Not OS specific either. Win8/32 and Win7/64 both exhibit the behavior. Same on Android phone, too.


Best guess is the PW is either too long, and/or contains a reserved
character and should be validated at submit time, but isn't.
Feature request for Merlin build, indicate exactly what the PW limitations are, and add validation upon submit to catch invalid passwords.

 

[RMerlin]

I'm not sure how you entered those 100 characters (or what you were trying to accomplish), but the text input field already prevents entering more than 16 characters.

 

[dawgfaneff]

I'm not sure how you entered those 100 characters (or what you were trying to accomplish), but the text input field already prevents entering more than 16 characters.

I use lastpass, and I believe it inserted the that it generated, or I pasted it. I don't remember exactly. Either way it, the UI didn't validate it like any other website where an illegal password is entered.

I think you can figure out what I was trying to do - enter a secure PW. With a PW manager, 100 chars mixed case is just as easy to use as a 1 char password.

Seems this has come up before; somehow I didn't locate these posts until now,

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=117592&postcount=4
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=20207

I think a simple indication in the UI of the limitations would be helpful. Not a big deal. Certainly doesn't detract from the experience so far of Asuswrt-Merlin, it's been outstanding in the week I've had it.