Support for mixed-case passwords

Support for mixed-case passwords depends on your external security manager. All security managers that support password phrases, that is passwords between 9 and 100 characters in length, support mixed case. However, not all security managers that support standard passwords, that is passwords up to 8 characters in length support mixed case.

When the security manager used with CICS® supports the use of mixed-case standard passwords, such as the z/OS Security Server (RACF) for z/OS 1.7, CICS does not convert passwords to uppercase before passing them to the security manager.

You can enter a password using one of the two signon transactions, CESL and CESN or one of the following API commands:
  • CHANGE PASSWORD
  • CHANGE PHRASE
  • VERIFY PASSWORD
  • VERIFY PHRASE
  • SIGNON
CESL supports password phrases and standard passwords. CESN supports only standard passwords. These transaction have two fields where passwords can be entered:
  • Password
  • New password
CICS can handle the password in one of two ways, depending upon whether the external security manager used with CICS supports mixed-case passwords.
  • If the security manager supports mixed-case passwords, CICS passes the password to the security manager unchanged.
  • If not, CICS converts the password to uppercase before passing it to the security manager.

To turn support for mixed-case passwords on, see Summary of RACF commands.