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Make Random, Pronouncable Passwords with PWGen
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 1:00 AM on December 4, 2007
Windows/Linux: Command-line utility PWGen generates random, meaningless passwords but uses letter and number combinations that can be pronounced and memorized. Simply typing "pwgen" and hitting enter will shoot back a screen full of passwords to choose from, helping to prevent shoulder-surfing sneaks, but you can easily hone down and customise the results with a few command-line switches. Those seeking to store and generate more random passwords should check out suites like KeePass, but for low-security applications like websites, PWGEn can quickly serve up some helpful nonsense. PWGen is a free download available in many Linux repositories and as a Windows installation at the link below.
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joelena
Posted 12:11 PM 3/12/07
@Kevin: The Sourceforge project you linked to is a Windows GUI app, completely independent of the Linux version of PWGen, from what I can tell.
Here's a man page for the Linux app: [linux.die.net]
The Sourceforge project, by the way, looks pretty good; it seems to include even more functions than the Linux app, but with no CLI.
joelena
Mike
Posted 3:41 PM 3/12/07
Here is where someone can download the Unix app.
Mike
Steve Hollasch
Posted 5:12 PM 3/12/07
Interesting. I've written a Perl script that does essentially this same thing. I take a standard English dictionary as input, and use letter combinations from the dictionary to construct reasonable gibberish words. My script also pumps out a screenful of text, and I select words that appeal to me on some level, and concatenate these words with some punctuation symbol.
What I end up with an easily-memorizable (though bizzare) password which is also fairly strong. Here's some example output:
istdab ledonad mmenque hieregu squatio
etociz nlikpod roctie ntisrrow eartssan
tranicat onstctor tionizer sinizab rnaerna
ashicas ze'men rphisili omyibil cadegent
arplndy ksores moniode yogeinfr uriecon
arcenti opincept urrenhon coloaso crobly
Steve Hollasch
fadecomic
Posted 9:37 AM 4/12/07
A reminder for the Mac folks: OS X does something like this already. Open "Keychain Access", choose File -> New Password Item. In the pop-up, click the key button to open the Password Assistant. The drop-down box at the top has an option called "memorable". It's not quite the same, in that the passwords are composed of words and symbols, but it's similar.
fadecomic