WPA-PSK password length requirement

[Robert Moskowitz <rgm htt-consult com>]

The is on Fedora 17, x86_64 (NM 0.9.6.4-3.fc17?), Gnome 3.

First I was a major contributor to 802.11i and wrote the first paper on 
the attack on WPA-PSK (and the myth on hiding SSIDs); I am not your 
typical end user having a complaint on client behaviour.

Yesterday, I was at a major corporation for a meeting and the quest SSID 
had a 6 digit all numeric passcode.  NM would not let me connect; it 
seem to insist that a passcode for WPA2-PSK be at least 8 characters 
long.  The meeting participants using Windows had no difficulty with 
this 6 digit passcode and were able to get on the guest wireless network.

On any SSID I set up, I will use a reasonably strong passcode (though I 
would REALLY like to start using SAE in place of PSK!), but sometimes 
you have NO control over what others do.  I REALLY need an override on 
the passcode length requirement; I will again be at that location for a 
meeting Dec 19.

I doubt I will find a way to complain to this company's senior 
management on their IT department's 'bad' policy.  This setup is 
probably only intended to keep rifraf from trying to get to the NEXT 
level of access control (you then need an 8 hour user account for 
hotspot login).  Oh, I did not mention that they hide this SSID. Sheesh.