"The question in which $p$-groups all normal subgroups are characteristic is a fairly old problem in the theory of finite $p$-groups. It seems difficult to assess because of the fact that neither subgroups nor factors of a group which has none but characteristic normal subgroups need retain this property."
These are the first two sentences of the following 2009 paper published in the Pacific Journal of Mathematics:
B. Wilkens - $p$-groups without noncharacteristic normal subgroups.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/9x1vx114u1795x02/
As a non-expert I have nothing more to add.