#1458 Unable to open database file in Linux when database password include any of the characters æ, ø or å.

[K K K]

I should probably start by point out that I am a new user of Linux and thus very inexperienced regarding this system.

When I try to open my longtime Windows generated PasswordSafe database file in Linux it fails with the following message: "Incorrect passkey, not a PasswordSafe database, or a corrupt database". When I open the database file in Windows 7 or on my Android phone there is no problem at all.
I have since noticed that if I create a new database file in Linux with a database password including any of the characters "æ, ø or å" I am able to open the database file in Linux but not in Windows. The reverse is true if I make a new database file in Windows with the above characters and try to open it in Linux. Thus, there seem to be some difference between the æ, ø and å characters in Linux and Windows.

Any clues on how to get around this?

Additional information: I use PasswordSafe V3.37.01 on Windows 7 and PasswordSafe V0.97 beta on Linux Mint 17.3.

[K K K]

I forgot to mention that I have the regular "danish" keyboard layout installed in Linux so I really don't get what the problem is.

[Hans Fr. Nordhaug]

I'm an experienced Linux user (and programmer), and I can confirm the problem. My Linux computer is running with UTF-8 so coding of characters should not be a problem. Adding entries with æøå works.

I tested with V1.04Beta on Linux and V3.45 on Windows. A file created on Windows can not be opened on Linux and vice versa if the passphrase contain æøå. I have attached both files and the passphrase for both files are "norsketegnæøå" (norwegian letters æ ø å).

I don't have time to look at this myself right now.

[Rony Shapiro]

Thanks for following up with a sample database.

The problem was with Windows incorrectly handling non-ASCII encoding (wchar_t Unicode code points to UTF-8 was incorrect for master password processing).
I've fixed this in the Windows version:

1. Backwards compatability with incorrectly encoded passwords is maintained, so that existing databases can be opened
2. Upon saving a database, the correct encoding will be applied. This means that Linux versions should be able to open databases saved on Windows with the fix
3. Databases with non-ASCII master passwords saved on Linux should now be readble on Windows machines.

I've uploaded pre-release versions to pwsafe.org and would greatly appreciate it if you can confirm that they fix the problem as described above for you as well:

• https://pwsafe.org/tmp/pwsafe64-3.46.0pre.exe
• https://pwsafe.org/tmp/pwsafe-3.46.0pre.exe

[Hans Fr. Nordhaug]

I have tested pwsafe-3.46.0pre.exe (against V1.04Beta on Linux) and there are no problems. Thx for the fix.

[Rony Shapiro]

Ticket moved from /p/passwordsafe/support-requests/457/

[Rony Shapiro]

Fix confirmed, will be in next release.