Date: Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:32:15 +0200 From: Peter Boosten <peter@boosten.org> To: Anton Shterenlikht <mexas@bristol.ac.uk> Cc: Roland Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Modulok <modulok@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Secure password generation...blasphemy! Message-ID: <4A77F20F.5060500@boosten.org> In-Reply-To: <20090804081841.GC74277@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> References: <64c038660908031928v15a76d15g5599e6f3fef936e1@mail.gmail.com> <20090804075221.GA3909@slackbox.xs4all.nl> <20090804081841.GC74277@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk>
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Anton Shterenlikht wrote: > On Tue, Aug 04, 2009 at 09:52:21AM +0200, Roland Smith wrote: >> On Mon, Aug 03, 2009 at 08:28:52PM -0600, Modulok wrote: >>> I need a way to generate a lot of secure passwords. So, I read all >>> about it. Either people are getting way carried away, or I'm missing >>> something... >> It is very easy to generate hard-to-guess semi-random passwords: >> >> openssl rand -base64 6 >> >> some examples: >> >> hJ9WQ0eK oOyHWEd4 W801vDIB mob29k5I RVDXkE/9 7BRHC+8h >> >> Even though this is semi-random, these are still extremely hard to >> guess, and neither will a dictionary attack be much use. The _big_ >> downside is that this kind of passwords are hard to remember. So people >> _will_ write them down. Which isn't a problem in itself, as long as they >> keep that piece of paper secure. (so not taped to their monitor, or >> under their keyboard.) >> >> A better solution IMHO is to let people make their own acronyms, mixed >> with a little l33tsp34k. That way you can have something easy to >> remember, but still hard to guess. E.g. "Ask not for whom the bell >> tolls" would become "An4wtbt". > > I really like the VMS password generation facility: > > UAF> modify donkey/generate_password > > tratworman > cralopyter > bosequism > coshindius > jaritions > > Enter PRIMARY password: > > clumiump > wrielene > guirtiety > scapress > primpatly > > Enter PRIMARY password: > > odliesting > conetred > emenstate > ammycle > rasests > > ... > > You are given a choice of 5 passwords to choose from. > If you don't like any, keep going until something > comes up that's easy to remember for you. > > The system manager can specify the min required length. > > I think this is a really nice utility, and VMS systems are > very rarely compromised, though perhaps VMS users are > better trained in password safe keeping. > Password guessing will crack these in a jiffy. Hardly secure I would say... I use apg, like this: /usr/local/bin/apg -x 8 -m 8 -l -MSNCL -s 8 characters, minimal one capital, number and special sign, and I could use a previous used password (or random) as input. Peter -- http://www.boosten.org
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