goodpw

This is a command line utility that creates very good passwords.

Exampe Output

c:\>goodpw

IXN!5A66mJZ2P.yfY6xJPo5mGtURLOdR

Often I need to create a good password for some of the many services I use.  Most of the are web pages on intra- or internet sites.  In the past I've used online services to do this but always felt uncomfortable doing that since this usually means that the password is sent over an insecure connection.  Possibly paranoia but since creating good random passwords is not a complicated thing to do I created this Windows command line utility.

Note that these passwords are not meant for remembering - these are very random (make use of Windows Crypto functions).

Background

The utility uses the characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and .! to make up an alphabet of 64 characters.  The output is 32 characters but you can of course use as many as you like.  If you use the full password it could take approximately 3*10^57 guesses to get right.  This means if you would use all existing computers today you would have approximately one in 100.000.000.000.000.000.000 chance of guessing it before our sun expires.

Installation instructions

Download the attachment below and extract.  No further installation required.  This is a 32-bit Windows binary that runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Run goodpw from the command prompt and copy paste into the relevant field.  Remember to store the password safely since this password won't be recalled ever again if you loose it!