I think this is not a terribly technical post but I couldn't resist posting about this mythical password ("123456") and its variations, after an informal research shows it is heavily in use.
The first time this great password was made popular was during the following dialog in the Space Balls film, at the point the "bad guys" are stealing the fresh air of planet Druidia and have been given the secret password:
Dark Helmet: All right, give to me.
Roland: The combination is (hesitates) one.
Dark Helmet: One.
Colonel Sandurz: One. (writes)
Roland: Two.
Dark Helmet: Two.
Colonel Sandurz: Two. (writes)
Roland: Three.
Dark Helmet: Three.
Colonel Sandurz: Three (writes)
Roland: Four.
Dark Helmet: Four.
Colonel Sandurz: Four. (writes)
Roland: (hesitates) Five.
Dark Helmet: Five.
Colonel Sandurz: Five. (writes)
Dark Helmet: So the combination is one, two, three, four, five. (lifts mask) That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life. That's the kinda thing an idiot would have on his luggage.
...
President Skroob: Great. Now we can take every last breath of fresh air from Planet Druidia. What's the combination?
Colonel Sandurz: 1-2-3-4-5
President Skroob: 1-2-3-4-5?
Colonel Sandurz: Yes!
President Skroob: That's amazing. I've got the same combination on my luggage.
President Skroob: Prepare Spaceball 1 for immediate departure!
Dark Helmet: Yes, sir!
President Skroob: And change the combination on my luggage!
That combination is not used just in luggage, if it is true as reported by an analysis (reported in the following PDF by Imperva) of the password used at the site rockyou.com (not a high secutiry site in user's mind, for sure) the top passwords are 123456, followed by 12345, the numbers to 9, to 7 and to 8 (in the order). Some 13,000+ smart users went for 654321! Great move, compared to the 500,000+ of the previous combinations.
I'm also intrigued by a few more groups of tens of thousands of users who picked "Password" as password or "rockyou" (the site name). There were also 13,000+ lazy typist who used "qwerty" the sequence of letters on their keyboards, right below 123456.
I know you've probably seens worse password stories among your users, if anyone is willing to share they are welcome!