up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I'm looking for a tool, command line or GUI, for Linux that generates memorable passwords.

An equivalent of what I am looking for would be passwords that the Mac Os X keychain can generate, something like apples12$/fourteen. Something strong, but easily memorized by a user.

link|improve this question
83% accept rate
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

You might want to check out the pwgen application. I know it to be available in the Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian and Suse repositories.

From the man page:

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. In particular, passwords generated by pwgen without the -s option should not be used in places where the password could be attacked via an off-line brute-force attack. On the other hand, completely randomly generated passwords have a tendency to be written down, and are subject to being compromised in that fashion.

The pwgen program is designed to be used both interactively, and in shell scripts. Hence, its default behavior differs depending on whether the standard output is a tty device or a pipe to another program. Used interactively, pwgen will display a screenful of passwords, allowing the user to pick a single password, and then quickly erase the screen. This prevents someone from being able to "shoulder surf" the user's chosen password.

link|improve this answer
Passwords like 'Zei7jool' or 'Oowee6ei' don't seem very memorable to me. Perhaps I am missing a flag? – James McMahon Jan 24 '11 at 18:44
@James They are generated according to an algorithm that puts letters in a non-sense, yet because they are logical in human linguistics, rememberable order. You'll probably have to make a similar effort to remember the apples12$/fourteen password. Just give it a try. – BloodPhilia Jan 24 '11 at 18:47
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

Try 'gpw'. It produces passwords such as these: ubsonsin morimplo demenump esselymn kidentst anenterg essonsuf iesssssi bestruss tnestese

Description: Trigraph Password Generator This package generates pronounceable passwords. It uses the statistics of three-letter combinations (trigraphs) taken from whatever dictionaries you feed it. Thus pronounceability may differ from language to language. Based on the ideas in Morrie Gasser's password generator for Multics, and Dan Edwards's generator for CTSS. FIPS Standard 181 describes a similar
digraph-based generator, derived from Gasser's.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.