Re: Need to generate passwords

[Scott Klement <klemscot@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 23 Oct 2002, PaulMmn wrote:
>
> My theory for a secure password is to randomly pick a word and attach
> a number to it.  Grab any book, magazine, or dictionary.  Open a page
> at random, close your eyes, and point.  That word, plus the page
> number, is your new password.
>

The problem with that is that you end up with very common words for 90%
of the passwords...   The numbers certainly help, though.

>
> Secure?  Probably just as good as a randomly generated license-plate
> number, and a lot easier to remember.
>

I disagree with that.  I don't think a random word, no matter what the
source, is as secure as a random sequence of characters.  A dictionary
file with a number tagged on would easily break it if you knew there
would be words involved.

Though, frankly, passwords aren't a huge source of break-ins today.
We're long past the "WarGames" days where people would always use things
like their wife's name, kids name, or simple words like "hello" or
"computer".  Most hackers today focus on exploiting bugs in the software
rather than just guessing random passwords or running a dictionary file.

Still, if we don't take some basic measures, things might go back to the
way they were...