When I add or change a password in the account mange section the password comes back as a much longer password.

Example I make a new file and it comes as admin with no password. I enter 1234 as password close and reopen the account mange and the password shows it has 20 charactors. What is my computer doing

nem

The number of characters displayed is just there to confuse hackers.

This is merely a graphical UI representation of the fact that you supplied a password. The password itself is not stored in the file, so the length of the representation is meaningless.

Steven

The password itself is not stored in the file -- good reminder, Steven.

More detail from the FM7 security tech brief

FileMaker Pro 7(+) does not store passwords in the database file. Instead it stores a hash of the password. A hash is the one–way, non–reversible result of performing a mathematical rule on a string of data. Even if the hash were recovered, it is computationally infeasible to reverse the process and thereby to obtain the original data: the password. When the user presents his or her credentials for authentication, FileMaker Pro hashes the credentials and compares them with the ones in the file. If there is a match, the user is authenticated as valid. This makes it extremely difficult to “crack” passwords.

We should note of course that some of the infamous crackers break and strip out the blocks where the has is stored and replace the hash with one of their own, damaging the file in the process.

Steven