I am having a disagreement with someone (a client) about the user identification/authentication process for a system. The nub of it is that they want each user to have a globally unique password (i.e. no two users can have the same password). I have wheeled out all the obvious arguments against this (it's a security vulnerability, it confuses identification with authentication, it's pointless, etc.) but they are insisting that there is nothing wrong with this approach.
I have done various google searches looking for authoritative (or semi-authoritative , or even just independent) opinions on this, but can't find any (mainly it's just such an obvious faux pas that it doesn't seem worth warning against, as far as I can tell). Can anybody point me towards any such independent opinion, please?
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Thanks for all your answers, but I already understand the problems with this proposed approach/requirement, and can even explain them to the client, but the client wont't accept them, hence my request for independent and/or authoritative sources.
I'd also found the Daily WTF article, but it suffers from the problem that Jon Hopkins has pointed out - that this is such a self-evident WTF that it doesn't seem worth explaining why.
And yes, the passwords are going to be salted and hashed. In which case global uniqueness might well be difficult to ensure, but that doesn't solve my problem - it just means that I have a requirement that the client won't budge on, that's not only ill-advised, but is also difficult to implement. And if I was in a position to say "I'm not budging on salting and hashing", then I'd be in a position to say "I'm not implementing globally unique passwords".
Any pointers to independent and/or authoritative sources for why this is a bad idea still gratefully received...
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