Commands tagged entropy (3)

  • According to the gpg(1) manual: --gen-random 0|1|2 count Emit count random bytes of the given quality level 0, 1 or 2. If count is not given or zero, an endless sequence of random bytes will be emitted. If used with --armor the output will be base64 encoded. PLEASE, don't use this command unless you know what you are doing; it may remove precious entropy from the system! If your entropy pool is critical for various operations on your system, then using this command is not recommended to generate a secure password. With that said, regenerating entropy is as simple as: du -s / This is a quick way to generate a strong, base64 encoded, secure password of arbitrary length, using your entropy pool (example above shows a 30-character long password). Show Sample Output


    11
    gpg --gen-random --armor 1 30
    atoponce · 2011-07-20 15:32:49 8
  • The pwgen program generates passwords which are designed to be easily memorized by humans, while being as secure as possible. Human-memorable passwords are never going to be as secure as completely completely random passwords. [from pwgen man page] Show Sample Output


    6
    pwgen 30 1
    sairon · 2011-07-24 19:43:48 5
  • Meters your actual entropy with pipe viewer command


    0
    pv /dev/random > /dev/null
    vdo · 2013-01-09 15:47:07 3

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Copy without overwriting

Fast, built-in pipe-based data sink
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