Random Strong Password Generator
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.
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 generated 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`
Generate a password and write it to a file:
randpw 70 > mystrongpassword.txt