Random Strong Password Generator

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About

This contrib provides a new shell command/tool called randpw, which is a Random Strong Password Generator. randpw can generate strong passwords of any given length based on a randomized set of ASCII characters and symbols.

Installation

To enhance the randomize functionality of the randpw command, an additional RPM from the 'epel repository is required. Please see these instructions on how to enable the epel repository.

Currently the randpw RPM is available from the xxx repository, and this repository should be enabled. Please see here on how to enable the xxx repository.

Currently only a 64-bit version is available.

[edit]

• For SME 8
• For SME 9

TBA

To install randpw and it's dependencies issue the following command as root:

yum install randpw haveged --enablerepo=epel,xxx

After installation the randpw tool is immediately available to be used.

Usage

The randpw command requires an positive number argument. This number stands for the length of the to be generated password. Although any positive number can be given, a sensible length for a password should be considered. e.g. SME user passwords have a minimum length of 7 and the MySQL root password has a length of 70. Obviously a user password length is limited to what is humanly reasonable to remember, where as automated mechanisms that require a password, such as site to site VPN connections or the above MySQL example, can have longer, and thus stronger, passwords.

Syntax:

randpw [n]

e.g.

randpw 75

will result in a generated random password which is displayed on the console e.g.:

~|)UI`;B:C9m;rW^*h)vQTaZYxSLnJNQqPzG[v#rCa,M=`<N`Ns~#Gx2x0ybx<h<v.Uw}w

Examples

Generate a SME user password:

randpw 7

Generate a password and store it to an SME Server db key (or db key property):

config set MyStrongPassword `randpw 70`

please note the usage of the ` character (ASCII 96) and not the ' character.

Generate a password and write it to a file:

randpw 70 > mystrongpassword.txt