Validating a User Password

August 21, 2002 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Hey, Ted:

I have an application in which I would like to use electronic signatures. We are in a federally regulated industry and it is required to have this process password protected. To make things easy on the users I would like to use their normal AS/400 passwords. Is there a method for validating a user ID and password?

— David

Take a look at the Check Password (CHKPWD) command. It requires one parameter: the password of the user profile under which it is running. If the password is not correct, CHKPWD sends one of the following escape messages:

CPF2362   Password not correct.

CPF2363   Only 1 attempt left to check password.

CPF2364   Maximum number of attempts to check password reached.

CHKPWD won’t prompt you for the password, so you’ll need to provide the user some way to enter it. The following display file DDS defines a non-display input field for that purpose:

A                                      DSPSIZ(24 80 *DS3)
A          R SCRN01
A                                  4  6'Enter your password to - 
A                                      continue:'
A            PWD           10A  I  4 40
A                                      DSPATR(ND)
A            MSG           78     24  2

This CL program prompts for the password and executes the CHKPWD command:

PGM                                                
                                                      
   DCLF       FILE(PWD1D)

RETRY:
   SNDRCVF
   CHKPWD PASSWORD(&PWD)
   MONMSG MSGID(CPF2362) EXEC(DO)
       CHGVAR VAR(&MSG) +
                VALUE('Invalid password; try again.')
       GOTO RETRY
   ENDDO

— Ted

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