Can the Identify spell actually be used to find out tech passwords?

[Xenocrat]

(Crossposted from the potential errors thread to get some discussion and possible FAQ clicks.)

Identify Spell, page 361 wrote:

This spell allows you to attempt to identify the function of a magic item (with Mysticism) or technological device (with Engineering) each round. You gain a +10 insight bonus to skill checks to identify the properties and command words or passwords of items targeted when using this spell.

Mysticism skill, page 143 wrote:

As part of the action to cast detect magic, you can use Mysticism to identify the properties and command words of magic items.

Engineering skill, page 142 wrote:

You can use Engineering to identify the properties and uses of technological items and devices such as starships and weapons, as well as alien technology.

The highlighted part of the Identify spell regarding "command words or passwords" is consistent with the Mysticism skill for identifying magical items, but inconsistent with the Engineer skill description for identifying technological items.

Either (1) the Identify Spell should be edited to remove any reference to identifying passwords [likely], (2) the Engineering skill should be edited to include the identification of passwords as something the skill can do [bizarre], or (3) there should be a FAQ that clarifies that with Identify, but only Identify, a check can be made to discover passwords [preferred].

What do people think? Is Identify just a specific overrules general that provides an ability to recover passwords from a computer or terminal, making it pretty great as an aid to a hacker, or an error that crept in? In either case, I think the ambiguity and uncertainty justifies a FAQ. I've seen it mentioned a couple of other times, once here and once on Reddit, so I'm not the first to notice.

[EC Gamer Guy]

I would actually think finding the passwords on a tech device would be a Computers check.

[whew]

Sometimes the device being IDed will hold the password. However, casting Identify on a terminal might not reveal a password stored on a mainframe. If the terminal was used many times and the password never changed, then Identify might work even when used on the terminal.

[Andy Brown]

Actually finding the password (instead of cracking the system) should be something only magic can do.
I live in the hope that password security in a science fantasy 'far future' is better than in the real world (not holding my breath though, there are still people involved :) )

[Xenocrat]

EC Gamer Guy wrote:

I would actually think finding the passwords on a tech device would be a Computers check.

That's another reason I think this is an error in the spell.

[Hecko_X]

It's now 4½ years later, and this is still an honest to God issue that needs an official answer. If it IS supposed to have you somehow magically intuit the password from a terminal, it would be immensely weird that it's Engineering being used instead of Computers.

Now, had it been something like a passcode or unlock sequence, I would be more inclined to see why engineering makes sense. It might be some alien device where you need to pinch, twist, and pull for it to open - something that requires mechanical finesse.

But if there's an official answer saying that "hey, magic" and the spell does somehow just allow you to pull someone's password out of the aether, then fine. As long as it's official.

[Kishmo]

Since we are 4 ½ years later now, and in light of Galactic Magic's recent release, I think we can deduce that Identify isn't supposed to help you crack tech/hybrid passwords, simply because the new lvl 2 mystic / technomancer / precog spell Bypass Password now does that. (Make a Caster Lvl check with a +10 bonus vs the computer's DC, to bypass the password and gain access.)

[Xenocrat]

All we can deduce from Bypass Password is that no one who wrote that spell or developed it understands the Starfinder hacking rules. Knowing a password does not actually grant you access to a computer, even if you also have a keycard - each component, if it even exists, is only a bonus to access. Maybe there's built in biometrics or they recognize the typing patterns of the registered user of that password or whatever, simply having the keys isn't enough to autosucced. That spell is unplayable as written.