Today's article has you generating random-ish passwords...

[KGIII]

Well, they're random enough, I'd say.

Anyhow, one of the first articles on the new site is about generating sufficiently complex passwords in the Linux terminal. This is Linux. So, it can be assumed that there's more than one way to accomplish this task. This is just another way.

Make Passwords In The Linux Terminal • Linux Tips

Today's article should be fairly simple and is about something we all use because it's about how to make passwords in the Linux terminal.

linux-tips.us

It seemed like a fine article to write at the time. After all, we all use passwords. Sometimes my browser will suggest complex passwords for me, which is nice.

At the same time, see the linked comic...

Are we doing passwords wrong? The dude behind xkcd is pretty darned smart. So, there's a potential topic for discussion.

 

[dos2unix]

I use pwgen. Which is very very similar to "makepassword" in your article.

Maybe it's the same program under the covers?

 

[KGIII]

I don't think so? There are different dependencies, but you could be right.

The first password article was about pwgen. So, I didn't cover it a second time. LOL I have written some duplicate articles. This is not one of them. I've gotten better at searching before starting a new article 'cause there's no way in heck for me to recall every article I've previously written.

This one, makepasswd, has some other neat features in it. You can generate the hash value so that that can be stored instead of a plain text password, for example. Seeding and hashing passwords is relatively important these days.

 

[atanere]

These get progressively longer. They change each time you run them. Just take what you need.

date | md5sum
date | sha256sum
date | sha512sum

 

[KGIII]

These get progressively longer and change each time you run it.

Well, that's one way to do it. Though, do those output capital letters? Sites with password requirements are fan of insisting there's a capital letter - and symbols. I don't think those output any symbols?

 

[atanere]

You're right, no caps and no symbols. Not every site requires them. But the output makes a very good starting point and needs no special software installed.

 

[KGIII]

You're right, no caps and no symbols. Not every site requires them. But the output makes a very good starting point and needs no special software installed.

And the results are definitely random-enough.

(I believe I've previously ranted and raved about randomness on this site. It's one of my favorite subjects and one that will keep you up at night pondering it. Much like infinity, it's best to just accept that the rules are the rules and not spend too much time considering them. That way lies madness!)