Wierd passwd problem

[Derek Chew En-Hock <sdchew@ieee.org>]

Hi Guys,

  I got a particular weird passwd problem with one particular debian
  machine that I am using... apparently, whether you input a password
  with a special character, the system still thinks its the
  same as the password without the special character...

  for example, if my password is testing123$

  the system would actually allow a valid login with either testing123
  or testing123$ as the valid password!

  In addition, I noticed passwd sometimes gives the error "passwd:
  Authentication information cannot be recovered" when I try changing
  the password...

  Anyone could give me a hand in this please?
  

-- 
Best regards,
 Derek                          mailto: sdchew AT ieee.org