The request to enter specific characters of the password rather than the full password may be a security measure intended to make it more difficult for an attacker to gain access to the account by guessing the password. However, it also means that a potential attacker only needs to be able to guess or brute force three characters of the password rather than all 12 characters.
In addition, the fact that the system is able to retrieve specific characters of the password suggests that the password is stored in a reversible format, which means that it can be read by anyone who has access to it.