# Shared Secret value restrictions

**URL:** <https://community.wowza.com/t/shared-secret-value-restrictions/46475>\
**Category:** Wowza Streaming Engine\
**Created:** [January 18, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/shared-secret-value-restrictions/46475 "2016-01-18T15:31:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Adam\_Fitzgarrald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Adam\_Fitzgarrald](https://community.wowza.com/u/Adam_Fitzgarrald)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/shared-secret-value-restrictions/46475/1 "2016-01-18T15:31:59Z")

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Is there any hidden property to bypass the letters/numbers only restriction on shared secrets? We are upgrading an older installation that has a shared secret containing special characters that has been compiled into some third party players that are not going to be easy to update.

I notice I can update the configuration files manually and it runs with the “invalid” value, but it makes me unable to adjust any settings through the engine manager.

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**Author:** ![Daren\_Johnson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee59a6/32.png) [@Daren\_Johnson](https://community.wowza.com/u/Daren_Johnson)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/shared-secret-value-restrictions/46475/2 "2016-01-20T23:35:39Z")

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Hi,

Unfortunately not. The Manager UI specifically requires an Alpaha-numeric shared secret string

and calls this out in the help text on the right:

“enter a string of alphanumeric characters in the Shared Secret box”.

Updating the XML is the way to go in your case, but as you observed you can edit/make updates in the UI from that point on

for that application.

Daren