#2802 suggestion: block-based permutation

[Stefan]

I often encounter password requests like:

1. password length must be over 12 characters,
2. must contain at least one lower case letter,
3. must contain at least one upper case letter,
4. must contain at least one digit,
5. must contain at least one special char,
6. must not begin with a special char.

To fulfill the requirements 1-5 I use the password generator with a custom pattern like ludsS{8}. With the 'Randomly permute characters of password' option the generated password are good without any systematic. But with the requirement 6 I can’t use this option, or I get sometimes forbidden passwords.
My suggestion is, to make a block-based permutation. I think that can be done with a special char in placeholder list. Maybe the pipe | can be used as a separator. With a pattern like A|ludsS{7} and the 'Randomly permute characters of password' option the permutation process is divided in two parts. In the first part A is not much do to, but in the second part ludsS{7} the characters will be shuffled.
When there is an additional requirement like “must not end with a special char” it’ll be easy done with A|ludsS{6}|A .

[Paul]

Requirement 6 is bizarre. What were they thinking?!
All you need to do is check the new password before use, or turn off randomly permute.

cheers, Paul