Special Character Support and Limitations in Workload Automation System Agent Password Utility

Products

• Workload Automation Agent

Issue/Introduction

When using the Workload Automation System Agent password utility (password on Unix/Linux or password.bat on Windows) to encrypt plain text passwords, certain special characters required by security policies (such as &, !, |, *, or #) may not be handled correctly. Users may find that the utility fails to encrypt the password or produces an unexpected result when these characters are included.

Environment

Operating Systems: All supported versions of Linux, UNIX, and Windows.
Agent Versions: All supported Workload Automation System Agent releases.

Cause

The password utility itself does not have inherent restrictions on special characters. Instead, the issue is typically caused by the Operating System (OS) shell (e.g., Bash on Linux or CMD on Windows). The shell often intercepts special characters as command-line instructions or metacharacters when the utility is executed with the password as a direct argument.

Resolution

To ensure that all special characters are processed correctly without OS shell interference, use one of the following methods:

• Method 1: Interactive Mode (Recommended) Run the utility without passing any arguments. This ensures the password is read directly from standard input rather than being parsed by the shell.
  • Navigate to the agent installation directory.
  • Execute the script:
    • Linux/UNIX: ./password
    • Windows: password.bat
  • When prompted, enter the plain text password and press Enter.
  • The utility will return the correctly encrypted string. 
• Method 2: Quoting and Escaping (For Automation/Scripts) If you must pass the password as a command-line argument, you must prevent the shell from interpreting the special characters:
  • Linux/UNIX: Enclose the entire password in single quotes (e.g., ./password.sh 'MyP@ssword!&'). 
  • Windows: Use double quotes or the appropriate escape character (^) for symbols like & or |.

Summary: The System Agent password utility supports all standard and complex special characters when entered via the interactive prompt.