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KeePass got me thinking about using more secure passwords and I suffered the consequences today. I went back to the Diceware Passphrase Home Page and played around. He recommends using dice to pick 4 or 5 random words from a list.The combination of words, a random capitalization, and a random punctuation makes a passphrase that is tough to crack but easy to remember. I wondered why there wasn’t a computer verion of his algorithm. The problem is that most computer algorithms for random numbers are not adequate for the security task. I decided to overlook this fault and when I found an easy dice routine written Python. With a little more work I created a Python program that simulated his algorithm using the dice routine. I learned a little about Python along the way.

I am not sure whether I want to commit to much stronger passwords. Although I can create random passwords with KeePass, I know I will not remember them and be reliant on KeePass to fill them in. This requires careful thought about backup and recovery. Windows logins are specially difficult since cut-and-paste is not an option. Hmm….

Related posts:

• Review of KeePass Password Safe
• Ophcrack 2 — The fastest Windows password cracker
• Chart on Effectiveness of Diceware versus Random passwords
• Favorite KeePass Trick
• Implementing the Change Password feature with Outlook Web Access

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