Hacker News Reader

Comment by cyberferret | Hacker News Reader

I just keep the RandomKeyGen [0] site on the top of my bookmarks, and whenever I need to set a password for a newly spun up server, or SQL DBA admin password etc., I just pick a random one from there.

Advantage over a password manager? - sometimes I have to document what the password is in offline technical notes or a password vault for the customer, and doing it this way lets me kill two birds with one stone.

[0] - https://randomkeygen.com/

View on HN

Mine is https://mostsecure.pw/ (please note this is a joke)

I'm amazed that this has been seen 0 times on HaveIBeenPwned[1]. It must be so secure that sites you use it on can't even be hacked.

[1] https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords

Better to use the `pwgen` command for that. There's no guarantee the passwords from that site are really random / not being stored.

True, but that site doesn't just give you one option, but dozens, from which I can randomly choose one. I normally change one or two characters from the ones listed anyhow, just in the unlikely event they are somehow using a fixed list which they are randomly choosing from.

I tend to use `gpw` because while it has less entropy per character I can easily memorize a much longer password if its pronounceable.

My ~/bin/makepass file:

    #! /bin/bash
    cat /dev/urandom | base64 --wrap ${1:-"10"} | head -n 1

Defaults to 10 character passwords, but you can put bigger numbers as the first argument. I don't think the `base64` command is on the Mac, so probably won't work there.

How about:

tr -dc '[:print:]' < /dev/urandom | head -c 20

Is there a similar site that makes memorable passwords but long? (basically I get entropy and can remember if needed). I use keepasaxc which doesn't have this.

Try https://www.rempe.us/diceware/

Disclaimer: I don't know much about this site and don't have any trust relationship with it. Have a read of the FAQ on the page and verify for yourself.

KeepassXC has an xkcd-style[0] generator where the password will just be e.g. "correct horse battery staple". I usually use these for mobile apps, although I don't try to actually remember them, so not sure how easy it is.

[0] https://xkcd.com/936/

I really enjoy using https://makemeapassword.ligos.net for xkcd-style passwords because the sentences you get are a lot easier to write as they sort of follow the natural syntax of English, yet are still completely nonsense. My single gripe with 1Passwords generator is that it just picks words at random, losing the cadence and flow of language.

I've always used the "password assistant" built-in to macOS's keychain when I need to generate passwords.

Why do you say this is an advantage over a password manager? You can store notes along password entries.

Not as easy to hand over to the customer at the end of a project though. We either manually enter the passwords in a digital vault under their control, or hand over a printed paper dossier with the access codes in it for them to do what they wish with them.

Nice try, NSA

Reply on news.ycombinator.com