This repository contains a simple password generator, suitable for command-line use or embedding into a PHP or Python project.
By default, the generator provides secure and random passwords guaranteed to satisfy the following requirements:
- 8 characters.
- At least one character from each of the following categories: upper case letters, lower case letters, digits.
- No homoglyphs (characters that look alike, such as the number
0
and the letterO
).
The repository also includes a passphrase generator, which will generate a secure passphrase consisting of four random words from a dictionary file. Perhaps most interestingly, a carefully prepared dictionary file has been included; read the source code for more information, or try it out in a browser.
The following files are included:
PasswordGenerator.php
: PHP password generator.passwordgenerator.py
: Python password generator.passphrasegenerator.py
: Python passphrase generator.passphrasegenerator.html
: JavaScript passphrase generator.
The Python password generator improves on the PHP version in that it uses the
OS secure random functionality (/dev/urandom
on Linux, CryptGenRandom
on Windows), and allows a password length to be specified on the command-line.
Generate a password or passphrase:
./passwordgenerator.php ./passwordgenerator.py ./passphrasegenerator.py
Generate a password of custom length (not supported in the PHP version):
./passwordgenerator.py 12
Estimate entropy (number of possible password combinations):
./passwordgenerator.php -e ./passwordgenerator.py -e ./passphrasegenerator.py -e
A password generator is not a novel idea, and most Linux distros include a few in their packages repositories, such as pwgen and makepasswd.
Feature | PasswordGenerator.php | passwordgenerator.py | pwgen | makepasswd |
---|---|---|---|---|
Implementation language | PHP | Python | C | Perl |
Password length | Fixed (8) | Any | Any | Any |
Password complexity | Alphanumeric | Alphanumeric | Any | Letters only |
Uses secure random? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Avoids homoglyphs? | Yes | Yes | Optionally | No |
Estimates entropy? | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Passphrase generators are not uncommon either, but most simply use the standard
Unix word list in /usr/share/dict/words
, which yields passphrases of
questionable quality. The real value of the included passphrase generator is
thus the included word list.
To the extent possible under law, the author has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Password Generator and the files in this repository.
For more information see: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/