Editing Random password generator (section)

{{Short description|Program that generates password from random number generator}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Original research|article|date=August 2008}}
{{More citations|date=April 2024}}
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[[File:Bitwarden Desktop 2024.12.1 password generator screenshot.webp|thumb|upright=1.2|Random password generator in [[Bitwarden]], here certain parameters can be adjusted from length to complexity]]
A '''random password generator''' is a [[Computer software|software]] program or [[Computer hardware|hardware]] device that takes input from a [[random]] or [[pseudo-random]] number generator and automatically generates a [[password]]. Random passwords can be generated manually, using simple sources of randomness such as [[Diceware|dice]] or [[Coin|coins]], or they can be generated using a computer.

While there are many examples of "random" password generator programs available on the Internet, generating randomness can be tricky, and many programs do not generate random characters in a way that ensures strong security. A common recommendation is to use [[open source]] security tools where possible, since they allow independent checks on the quality of the methods used. Simply generating a password at random does not ensure the password is a strong password, because it is possible, although highly unlikely, to generate an easily guessed or cracked password. In fact, there is no need at all for a password to have been produced by a perfectly random process: it just needs to be sufficiently difficult to guess.

A password generator can be part of a [[password manager]]. When a [[password policy]] enforces complex rules, it can be easier to use a password generator based on that set of rules than to manually create passwords.

Long strings of random characters are difficult for most people to memorize. [[Mnemonic]] hashes, which reversibly convert random strings into more memorable passwords, can substantially improve the ease of memorization. As the [[hash (computing)|hash]] can be processed by a computer to recover the original 60-bit string, it has at least as much information content as the original string.<ref name=memorize>{{cite book |last1=Ghazvininejad |first1=Marjan |last2=Knight |first2=Kevin |title=Proceedings of the 2015 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies |chapter=How to Memorize a Random 60-Bit String |date=May–June 2015 |volume=Proceedings of the 2015 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies |pages=1569–1575 |doi=10.3115/v1/N15-1180 |chapter-url=https://www.isi.edu/natural-language/mt/memorize-random-60.pdf |location=Denver, Colorado |publisher=Association for Computational Linguistics |s2cid=8028691 }}</ref> Similar techniques are used in [[memory sport]].