Password Generator
Generate secure and memorable passwords.
About Password Generator
Passwords are a pain in the butt (saying it nicely). Sure, we need them to keep our online lives secure, but too often they don't do that because we take shortcuts to make living with them easier. We either have weak passwords that are easy for us to remember, but are easily hacked, or we have strong passwords that we can never remember and then end up compromising by writing down or storing in some other insecure way. Thankfully there is a better approach, and Password Generator can help you with it.
Password approaches
Here are some examples of different password approaches and their pros and cons:
- The simplest approach is unfortunately the most common, and the least secure. I'm talking about really poor passwords such as "Password1" or other simple passwords such as the name of your child or pet, possibly with a date or other meaningful number added on. These passwords are very easy for hackers to guess. It's easy to find out the names of children and pets online from social media, and there are also lists of common names. And dates are bad because they too can be found out, and even if they can't, there are only so many dates that could apply. So while these types of passwords are easy to remember, they are considered very insecure.
- Another approach people take to passwords is to reuse the same password on multiple sites. Again, this makes them easier to remember, you only have to remember one, but this is very dangerous. If a hacker gets ahold of your password on one site, they can then access any other site that you used this password on. All it takes is one insecure website to put you at risk.
- A more secure approach is to use complex passwords, consisting of random letters, numbers, and symbols. Think "c$u@5h]Bw7JP". While these types of passwords are secure, they are impossible to remember. As a result, we need to write them down or store them somewhere less secure, both of which make the password vulnerable and less secure.
- Which brings us to a better approach, a series of random words or word phrase. Take a couple random words from the dictionary, put them together, and you have a password that is very secure and easy to remember. An example would be "SeriousPullHappyRate". Because these passwords consist of real words, they are easier for us to remember, because our brain can create an association between the words. And while at first glance they might not appear to be very secure as they look quite simple, they are actually more secure than the complex password previously described due to the number of possible words (see below).
Measuring password strength
In statistical terms, passwords are permutations. The strength is computed by calculating the number of possible passwords that can be generated using a given approach. To calculate this, we raise the number of possible values (x) to the power of the number values used in the password (y), which is represented as xy. For the random word passwords generated by Password Generator, the number of possible values is the number of words used, which is about 5000 possible values. And by default the number of words used is four (you can increase or decrease this). So the number of possible passwords or strength is 50004, which evaluates to 6.25e+14, which is 6 with 14 zeros behind it: 600,000,000,000,000. So as you can see, it would take a lot of guesses for someone to hack one of these passwords.
How can Password Generator help?
So if you've decided you'd like to start using word phrases for passwords, you could get out that old dictionary and maybe some dice, and start creating passwords. But Password Generator makes it much easier. It has a built in list of almost 5000 words, and randomly selects them to build possible passwords for you. You can keep generating them until you find one you like and feel you can easily remember.
Is Password Generator secure?
Given that we are dealing with passwords and security, this is an important question. So here are a couple things to know:
- Password Generator runs completely in your browser. That means these passwords are generated on your computer or phone and never leave there. They are never sent over your network or internet connection, and they are never shared with the web server.
- Although the passwords generated with Password Generator are quite secure, no password is unhackable. Given this, I am not responsible if a password generated here is ever hacked.
How to use Password Generator
When first started, the app will show you a list of randomly generated passwords.
The following action can be performed by clicking on the buttons on the right after each password:
The following actions can be performed by clicking on their corresponding toolbar buttons or menu items:
Icon Action Description content_copy Copy Copy the password shown on this line to the clipboard.
Icon Action Description refresh Refresh Generate a new list of passwords. settings Settings
- Specify the length of the generated passwords (number of words). Remember, more words is more secure.
- Specify the number of passwords to show in the list at a time.
- Turn off animation for faster password generation.
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Feedback on Password Generator
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Get started with Password Generator
To get started with Password Generator, click the Generate Passwords button below.