Find random strings within /dev/urandom. Using grep filter to just Alphanumeric characters, and then print the first 30 and remove all the line feeds. Show Sample Output

4 random words are better than one obfuscated word http://xkcd.com/936/ Show Sample Output

-B flag = don't include characters that can be confused for other characters (this helps when you give someone their password for the first time so they don't cause a lockout with, for example, denyhosts or fail2ban) -s flag = make a "secure", or hard-to-crack password -y flag = include special characters (not used in the example because so many people hate it -- however I recommend it) "1 10" = output 1 password, make it 10 characters in length For even more secure passwords please use the -y flag to include special characters like so: pwgen -Bsy 10 1 output>> }&^Y?.>7Wu Show Sample Output

If you want a password length longer than 6, changing the -c6 to read -c8 will give you 8 random characters instead of 6. To end up with a line-feed, use this with echo: # echo `< /dev/urandom tr -dc _A-Z-a-z-0-9 | head -c6` Modern systems need higher strenght, so add some special characters: # < /dev/urandom tr -dc '12345!@#$%qwertQWERTasdfgASDFGzxcvbZXCVB' | head -c8

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

for Mac OS X Show Sample Output

See: "man pwgen" for full details. Some Linux distros may not have pwgen included in the base distribution so you maye have to install it (eg in Mandriva Linux: "urpmi pwgen"). Show Sample Output

Don't copy trailing '=' or use head -c to limit to desired length. Show Sample Output

Generates a random 8-character password that can be typed using only the left hand on a QWERTY keyboard. Useful to avoid taking your hand off of the mouse, especially if your username is left-handed. Change the 8 to your length of choice, add or remove characters from the list based on your preferences or kezboard layout, etc.

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

This is just a proof of concept: A FILE WHICH CAN AUTOMOUNT ITSELF through a SIMPLY ENCODED script. It takes advantage of the OFFSET option of mount, and uses it as a password (see that 9191? just change it to something similar, around 9k). It works fine, mounts, gets modified, updated, and can be moved by just copying it. USAGE: SEE SAMPLE OUTPUT The file is composed of three parts: a) The legible script (about 242 bytes) b) A random text fill to reach the OFFSET size (equals PASSWORD minus 242) c) The actual filesystem Logically, (a)+(b) = PASSWORD, that means OFFSET, and mount uses that option. PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN ENCRYPTED FILESYSTEM. To improve it, it can be mounted with a better encryption script and used with encfs or cryptfs. The idea was just to test the concept... with one line :) It applies the original idea of http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/7382/command-for-john-cons for encrypting the file. The embedded bash script can be grown, of course, and the offset recalculation goes fine. I have my own version with bash --init-file to startup a bashrc with a well-defined environment, aliases, variables. Show Sample Output

These are my favourite switches on pwgen: -B Don't include ambiguous characters in the password -n Include at least one number in the password -y Include at least one special symbol in the password -c Include at least one capital letter in the password It just works! Add a number to set password length, add another to set how many password to output. Example: pwgen -Bnyc 12 20 this will output 20 password of 12 chars length. Show Sample Output

Prepending env LC_CTYPE=C fixes a problem with bad bytes in /dev/urandom on Mac OS X

Generates password consisting of alphanumeric characters, defaults to 16 characters unless argument given. Show Sample Output

Another password maker, for human-unfriendly passwords. '-base64' output will make sure it it can be typed on a keyboard, though the output string length will always be a multiple of 4. Show Sample Output

This was useful to generate random passwords to some webpage users, using the sample code, inside a bash script Show Sample Output

Feel free to put this in your ~/.profile: random(){ cat /dev/urandom | env LC_CTYPE=C tr -dc $1 | head -c $2; echo; } Then use it to generate passwords: random [:alnum:] 16 Or DNA sequences: random ACGT 256

This command is similar to the alternate, except with head(1), you can pick as many passwords as you wish to generate by changing the number of lines you wish to preview. Show Sample Output

shell generate random strong password Show Sample Output

make password randomly, default 8 chars, using bash3.X only, no external program.

generate password Show Sample Output

Of course you will have to install Digest::SHA and perl before this will work :) Maximum length is 43 for SHA256. If you need more, use SHA512 or the hexadecimal form: sha256_hex() Show Sample Output