Authorize.net is pretty good at being just average. I expect they will be wiped out by someone better, though, based on the pretty sad back end design and stuff like this that I’m blogging now…but maybe no one cares in the same way they don’t expect much from their financial institutions…
Background
Authorize.net forces you to change your password regularly. This is good. They give you a bit of a warning and then you have no choice. So, I use KeepassXC to automatically generate passwords that are so secure that I don’t even know what they are. When those are generated it gives neato passwords like this:
ii$echl%4UPD2[SIr?t&[x0v8'
The only problem is this: one or more of those characters above is considered a ‘non-printing character’ or ‘invalid’ by authorize.net and it will not be accepted and you will get an error like this:
“your password cannot contain invalid characters”
But then just below that you see a rule that says your password must contain:
“at least one special character (e.g. !@$_)
But the very, very best part that shows that proves Authorize.net is actually Authorize.NOT is this that they do not tell you what an ‘invalid character” is!!
What the !@$_???
Someone at head office is a real, real sick person and should seek professional help…
The Solution
Forgive me if I missed any – and comment below if I did, but here is my list of characters they consider ‘invalid’ so if your password has any of these, then remove them and change them:
- – (minus)
- , (comma)
- | (pipe, straight bracket)
- ‘ (apostrophe)
Took me a few years to get this list so far, so hope that helps!
