八种在 Linux 上生成随机密码的方法
密码

> 
> 学习使用 8 种 Linux 原生命令或第三方实用程序来生成随机密码。
> 
> 
> 


![](/data/attachment/album/201802/06/235820hjcj4fw6mmxw6fzw.png)


在这篇文章中，我们将引导你通过几种不同的方式在 Linux 终端中生成随机密码。其中几种利用原生 Linux 命令，另外几种则利用极易在 Linux 机器上安装的第三方工具或实用程序实现。在这里我们利用像 `openssl`, [dd](https://kerneltalks.com/commands/learn-dd-command-with-examples/), `md5sum`, `tr`, `urandom` 这样的原生命令和 mkpasswd，randpw，pwgen，spw，gpg，xkcdpass，diceware，revelation，keepaasx，passwordmaker 这样的第三方工具。


其实这些方法就是生成一些能被用作密码的随机字母字符串。随机密码可以用于新用户的密码，不管用户基数有多大，这些密码都是独一无二的。话不多说，让我们来看看 8 种不同的在 Linux 上生成随机密码的方法吧。


### 使用 mkpasswd 实用程序生成密码


`mkpasswd` 在基于 RHEL 的系统上随 `expect` 软件包一起安装。在基于 Debian 的系统上 `mkpasswd` 则在软件包 `whois` 中。直接安装 `mkpasswd` 软件包将会导致错误：


* RHEL 系统：软件包 mkpasswd 不可用。
* Debian 系统：错误：无法定位软件包 mkpasswd。


所以按照上面所述安装他们的父软件包，就没问题了。


运行 `mkpasswd` 来获得密码



```
root@kerneltalks# mkpasswd << on RHEL
zt*hGW65c

root@kerneltalks# mkpasswd teststring << on Ubuntu
XnlrKxYOJ3vik

```

这个命令在不同的系统上表现得不一样，所以工作方式各异。你也可以通过参数来控制长度等选项，可以查阅 man 手册来探索。


### 使用 openssl 生成密码


几乎所有 Linux 发行版都包含 openssl。我们可以利用它的随机功能来生成可以用作密码的随机字母字符串。



```
root@kerneltalks # openssl rand -base64 10
nU9LlHO5nsuUvw==

```

这里我们使用 `base64` 编码随机函数，最后一个数字参数表示长度。


### 使用 urandom 生成密码


设备文件 `/dev/urandom` 是另一个获得随机字符串的方法。我们使用 `tr` 功能并裁剪输出来获得随机字符串，并把它作为密码。



```
root@kerneltalks # strings /dev/urandom |tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 | head -c20; echo
UiXtr0NAOSIkqtjK4c0X

```

### 使用 dd 命令生成密码


我们甚至可以使用 `/dev/urandom` 设备配合 [dd 命令](https://kerneltalks.com/commands/learn-dd-command-with-examples/) 来获取随机字符串。



```
root@kerneltalks# dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1 count=15|base64 -w 0
15+0 records in
15+0 records out
15 bytes (15 B) copied, 5.5484e-05 s, 270 kB/s
QMsbe2XbrqAc2NmXp8D0

```

我们需要将结果通过 `base64` 编码使它能被人类可读。你可以使用数值来获取想要的长度。想要获得更简洁的输出的话，可以将“标准错误输出”重定向到 `/dev/null`。简洁输出的命令是：



```
root@kerneltalks # dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1 count=15 2>/dev/null|base64 -w 0
F8c3a4joS+a3BdPN9C++

```

### 使用 md5sum 生成密码


另一种获取可用作密码的随机字符串的方法是计算 MD5 校验值！校验值看起来确实像是随机字符串组合在一起，我们可以用作密码。确保你的计算源是个变量，这样的话每次运行命令时生成的校验值都不一样。比如 `date` ！[date 命令](https://kerneltalks.com/commands/date-time-management-using-timedatectl-command/) 总会生成不同的输出。



```
root@kerneltalks # date |md5sum
4d8ce5c42073c7e9ca4aeffd3d157102  -

```

在这里我们将 `date` 命令的输出通过 `md5sum` 得到了校验和！你也可以用 [cut 命令](https://kerneltalks.com/linux/cut-command-examples/) 裁剪你需要的长度。


### 使用 pwgen 生成密码


`pwgen` 软件包在类似 [EPEL 软件仓库](https://kerneltalks.com/package/how-to-install-epel-repository/)（LCTT 译注：企业版 Linux 附加软件包）中。`pwgen` 更专注于生成可发音的密码，但它们不在英语词典中，也不是纯英文的。标准发行版仓库中可能并不包含这个工具。安装这个软件包然后运行 `pwgen` 命令行。Boom !



```
root@kerneltalks # pwgen
thu8Iox7 ahDeeQu8 Eexoh0ai oD8oozie ooPaeD9t meeNeiW2 Eip6ieph Ooh1tiet
cootad7O Gohci0vo wah9Thoh Ohh3Ziur Ao1thoma ojoo6aeW Oochai4v ialaiLo5
aic2OaDa iexieQu8 Aesoh4Ie Eixou9ph ShiKoh0i uThohth7 taaN3fuu Iege0aeZ
cah3zaiW Eephei0m AhTh8guo xah1Shoo uh8Iengo aifeev4E zoo4ohHa fieDei6c
aorieP7k ahna9AKe uveeX7Hi Ohji5pho AigheV7u Akee9fae aeWeiW4a tiex8Oht

```

你的终端会呈现出一个密码列表！你还想要什么呢？好吧。你还想再仔细探索的话， `pwgen` 还有很多自定义选项，这些都可以在 man 手册里查阅到。


### 使用 gpg 工具生成密码


GPG 是一个遵循 OpenPGP 标准的加密及签名工具。大部分 gpg 工具都预先被安装好了（至少在我的 RHEL7 上是这样）。但如果没有的话你可以寻找 `gpg` 或 `gpg2` 软件包并[安装](https://kerneltalks.com/tools/package-installation-linux-yum-apt/)它。


使用下面的命令以从 gpg 工具生成密码。



```
root@kerneltalks # gpg --gen-random --armor 1 12
mL8i+PKZ3IuN6a7a

```

这里我们传了生成随机字节序列选项（`--gen-random`），质量为 1（第一个参数），次数 12 （第二个参数）。选项 `--armor` 保证以 `base64` 编码输出。


### 使用 xkcdpass 生成密码


著名的极客幽默网站 [xkcd](https://xkcd.com/)，发表了一篇非常有趣的文章，是关于好记但又复杂的密码的。你可以在[这里](https://xkcd.com/936/)阅读。所以 `xkcdpass` 工具就受这篇文章启发，做了这样的工作！这是一个 Python 软件包，可以在[这里](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/xkcdpass/)的 Python 的官网上找到它。


![](/data/attachment/album/201802/06/235825mza9bbbbpypzj99h.png)


所有的安装使用说明都在上面那个页面提及了。这里是安装步骤和我的测试 RHEL 服务器的输出，以供参考。



```
root@kerneltalks # wget https://pypi.python.org/packages/b4/d7/3253bd2964390e034cf0bba227db96d94de361454530dc056d8c1c096abc/xkcdpass-1.14.3.tar.gz#md5=5f15d52f1d36207b07391f7a25c7965f
--2018-01-23 19:09:17--  https://pypi.python.org/packages/b4/d7/3253bd2964390e034cf0bba227db96d94de361454530dc056d8c1c096abc/xkcdpass-1.14.3.tar.gz
Resolving pypi.python.org (pypi.python.org)... 151.101.32.223, 2a04:4e42:8::223
Connecting to pypi.python.org (pypi.python.org)|151.101.32.223|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 871848 (851K) [binary/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘xkcdpass-1.14.3.tar.gz’

100%[==============================================================================================================================>] 871,848     --.-K/s   in 0.01s

2018-01-23 19:09:17 (63.9 MB/s) - ‘xkcdpass-1.14.3.tar.gz’ saved [871848/871848]


root@kerneltalks # tar -xvf xkcdpass-1.14.3.tar.gz
xkcdpass-1.14.3/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/examples/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/examples/example_import.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/examples/example_json.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/examples/example_postprocess.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/LICENSE.BSD
xkcdpass-1.14.3/MANIFEST.in
xkcdpass-1.14.3/PKG-INFO
xkcdpass-1.14.3/README.rst
xkcdpass-1.14.3/setup.cfg
xkcdpass-1.14.3/setup.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/tests/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/tests/test_list.txt
xkcdpass-1.14.3/tests/test_xkcdpass.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/tests/__init__.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/eff-long
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/eff-short
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/eff-special
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/fin-kotus
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/ita-wiki
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/legacy
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/spa-mich
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/xkcd_password.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/__init__.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.1
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/entry_points.txt
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/not-zip-safe
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/PKG-INFO
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/SOURCES.txt
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/top_level.txt


root@kerneltalks # cd xkcdpass-1.14.3

root@kerneltalks # python setup.py install
running install
running bdist_egg
running egg_info
writing xkcdpass.egg-info/PKG-INFO
writing top-level names to xkcdpass.egg-info/top_level.txt
writing dependency_links to xkcdpass.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
writing entry points to xkcdpass.egg-info/entry_points.txt
reading manifest file 'xkcdpass.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
reading manifest template 'MANIFEST.in'
writing manifest file 'xkcdpass.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
installing library code to build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg
running install_lib
running build_py
creating build
creating build/lib
creating build/lib/xkcdpass
copying xkcdpass/xkcd_password.py -> build/lib/xkcdpass
copying xkcdpass/__init__.py -> build/lib/xkcdpass
creating build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/eff-long -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/eff-short -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/eff-special -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/fin-kotus -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/ita-wiki -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/legacy -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/spa-mich -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/xkcd_password.py -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/__init__.py -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/eff-long -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/eff-short -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/eff-special -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/fin-kotus -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/ita-wiki -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/legacy -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/spa-mich -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
byte-compiling build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/xkcd_password.py to xkcd_password.pyc
byte-compiling build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/__init__.py to __init__.pyc
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/PKG-INFO -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/SOURCES.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/dependency_links.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/entry_points.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/not-zip-safe -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/top_level.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
creating dist
creating 'dist/xkcdpass-1.14.3-py2.7.egg' and adding 'build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg' to it
removing 'build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg' (and everything under it)
Processing xkcdpass-1.14.3-py2.7.egg
creating /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/xkcdpass-1.14.3-py2.7.egg
Extracting xkcdpass-1.14.3-py2.7.egg to /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages
Adding xkcdpass 1.14.3 to easy-install.pth file
Installing xkcdpass script to /usr/bin

Installed /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/xkcdpass-1.14.3-py2.7.egg
Processing dependencies for xkcdpass==1.14.3
Finished processing dependencies for xkcdpass==1.14.3

```

现在运行 `xkcdpass` 命令，将会随机给出你几个像下面这样的字典单词：



```
root@kerneltalks # xkcdpass
broadside unpadded osmosis statistic cosmetics lugged

```

你可以用这些单词作为其他命令，比如 `md5sum` 的输入，来获取随机密码（就像下面这样），甚至你也可以用每个单词的第 N 个字母来生成你的密码！



```
root@kerneltalks # xkcdpass |md5sum
45f2ec9b3ca980c7afbd100268c74819  -

root@kerneltalks # xkcdpass |md5sum
ad79546e8350744845c001d8836f2ff2  -

```

或者你甚至可以把所有单词串在一起作为一个超长的密码，不仅非常好记，也不容易被电脑程序攻破。


Linux 上还有像 [Diceware](http://world.std.com/%7Ereinhold/diceware.html)、 [KeePassX](https://www.keepassx.org/)、 [Revelation](https://packages.debian.org/sid/gnome/revelation)、 [PasswordMaker](https://passwordmaker.org/) 这样的工具，也可以考虑用来生成强随机密码。




---


via: <https://kerneltalks.com/tips-tricks/8-ways-to-generate-random-password-in-linux/>


作者：[kerneltalks](https://kerneltalks.com) 译者：[heart4lor](https://github.com/heart4lor) 校对：[Locez](https://github.com/locez)


本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出


OK
*Learn 8 different ways to generate a random password in Linux using Linux native commands or third-party utilities.*

![](https://z5.kerneltalks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/different-ways-to-generate-password-in-linux.png)

In this article, we will walk you through various different ways to generate a random password in the Linux terminal. Few of them are using native Linux commands and others are using third-party tools or utilities which can easily be installed on the Linux machine. Here we are looking at native commands like,`openssl`

[dd](https://kerneltalks.com/commands/learn-dd-command-with-examples/), `md5sum`

, `tr`

, `urandom`

and third-party tools like mkpasswd, randpw, pwgen, spw, gpg, xkcdpass, diceware, revelation, keepaasx, passwordmaker.

These are actually ways to get some random alphanumeric string which can be utilized as a password. Random passwords can be used for new users so that there will be uniqueness no matter how large your user base is. Without any further delay, let’s jump into those 15 different ways to generate the random password in Linux.

### Generate password using mkpasswd utility

`mkpasswd`

comes with the install of `expect`

package on RHEL based systems. On Debian based systems `mkpasswd`

comes with package `whois`

. Trying to install `mkpasswd`

package will result in error –

*No package mkpasswd available.* on RHEL system and *E: Unable to locate package mkpasswd* in Debian based.

So install their parent packages as mentioned above and you are good to go.

Run `mkpasswd`

to get passwords

```
root@kerneltalks# mkpasswd << on RHEL
zt*hGW65c
root@kerneltalks# mkpasswd teststring << on Ubuntu
XnlrKxYOJ3vik
```

Command behaves differently on different systems so work accordingly. There are many switches that can be used to control length etc parameters. You can explore them from man pages.

### Generate password using OpenSSL

OpenSSL comes in build with almost all the Linux distributions. We can use its random function to get alphanumeric string generated which can be used as a password.

```
root@kerneltalks # openssl rand -base64 10
nU9LlHO5nsuUvw==
```

Here, we are using `base64`

encoding with random function and last digit for the argument to `base64`

encoding.

### Generate password using urandom

The device file `/dev/urandom`

is another source of getting random characters. We are using `tr`

function and trimming output to get the random string to use as a password.

```
root@kerneltalks # strings /dev/urandom |tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 | head -c20; echo
UiXtr0NAOSIkqtjK4c0X
```

### dd command to generate password

We can even use `/dev/urandom`

device along with [dd command ](https://kerneltalks.com/commands/learn-dd-command-with-examples/)to get a string of random characters.

```
root@kerneltalks# dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1 count=15|base64 -w 0
15+0 records in
15+0 records out
15 bytes (15 B) copied, 5.5484e-05 s, 270 kB/s
QMsbe2XbrqAc2NmXp8D0
```

We need to pass output through `base64`

encoding to make it human-readable. You can play with count value to get the desired length. For much cleaner output, redirect std2 to `/dev/null`

. The clean command is –

```
root@kerneltalks # dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1 count=15 2>/dev/null|base64 -w 0
F8c3a4joS+a3BdPN9C++
```

### Using md5sum to generate password

Another way to get an array of random characters which can be used as the password is to calculate MD5 checksum! s you know checksum value indeed looks like random characters grouped together we can use it as the password. Make sure you use the source as something variable so that you get different checksum every time you run command. For example `date`

! [date command](https://kerneltalks.com/commands/date-time-management-using-timedatectl-command/) always yields changing the output.

```
root@kerneltalks # date |md5sum
4d8ce5c42073c7e9ca4aeffd3d157102 -
```

Here we passed `date`

command output to `md5sum`

and get the checksum hash! You can use [cut command](https://kerneltalks.com/linux/cut-command-examples/) to get the desired length of the output.

### Generate password using pwgen

`pwgen`

package comes with [repositories like EPEL](https://kerneltalks.com/package/how-to-install-epel-repository/). `pwgen`

is more focused on generating passwords that are pronounceable but not a dictionary word or not in plain English. You may not find it in standard distribution repo. Install the package and run `pwgen`

command. Boom!

```
root@kerneltalks # pwgen
thu8Iox7 ahDeeQu8 Eexoh0ai oD8oozie ooPaeD9t meeNeiW2 Eip6ieph Ooh1tiet
cootad7O Gohci0vo wah9Thoh Ohh3Ziur Ao1thoma ojoo6aeW Oochai4v ialaiLo5
aic2OaDa iexieQu8 Aesoh4Ie Eixou9ph ShiKoh0i uThohth7 taaN3fuu Iege0aeZ
cah3zaiW Eephei0m AhTh8guo xah1Shoo uh8Iengo aifeev4E zoo4ohHa fieDei6c
aorieP7k ahna9AKe uveeX7Hi Ohji5pho AigheV7u Akee9fae aeWeiW4a tiex8Oht
```

You will be presented with the list of passwords at your terminal! What else you want? Ok. You still want to explore, `pwgen`

comes with many custom options that can be referred for man page.

### Generate password using gpg tool

GPG is an OpenPGP encryption and signing tool. Mostly gpg tool comes pre-installed (at least it is on my RHEL7). But if not you can look for `gpg`

or `gpg2`

package and [install](https://kerneltalks.com/tools/package-installation-linux-yum-apt/) it.

Use below command to generate password from gpg tool.

```
root@kerneltalks # gpg --gen-random --armor 1 12
mL8i+PKZ3IuN6a7a
```

Here we are passing generate random byte sequence switch (`--gen-random`

) of quality 1 (first argument) with a count of 12 (second argument). Switch `--armor`

ensures output is `base64`

encoded.

### Generate password using xkcdpass

Famous geek humor website [xkcd](https://xkcd.com/), published a very interesting post about memorable but still complex passwords. You can view it [here](https://xkcd.com/936/). So `xkcdpass`

tool took inspiration from this post and did its work! It’s a python package and available on python’s official website [here](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/xkcdpass/)

All installation and usage instructions are mentioned on that page. Here is install steps and outputs from my test RHEL server for your reference.

```
root@kerneltalks # wget https://pypi.python.org/packages/b4/d7/3253bd2964390e034cf0bba227db96d94de361454530dc056d8c1c096abc/xkcdpass-1.14.3.tar.gz#md5=5f15d52f1d36207b07391f7a25c7965f
--2018-01-23 19:09:17-- https://pypi.python.org/packages/b4/d7/3253bd2964390e034cf0bba227db96d94de361454530dc056d8c1c096abc/xkcdpass-1.14.3.tar.gz
Resolving pypi.python.org (pypi.python.org)... 151.101.32.223, 2a04:4e42:8::223
Connecting to pypi.python.org (pypi.python.org)|151.101.32.223|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
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Saving to: ‘xkcdpass-1.14.3.tar.gz’
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2018-01-23 19:09:17 (63.9 MB/s) - ‘xkcdpass-1.14.3.tar.gz’ saved [871848/871848]
root@kerneltalks # tar -xvf xkcdpass-1.14.3.tar.gz
xkcdpass-1.14.3/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/examples/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/examples/example_import.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/examples/example_json.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/examples/example_postprocess.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/LICENSE.BSD
xkcdpass-1.14.3/MANIFEST.in
xkcdpass-1.14.3/PKG-INFO
xkcdpass-1.14.3/README.rst
xkcdpass-1.14.3/setup.cfg
xkcdpass-1.14.3/setup.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/tests/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/tests/test_list.txt
xkcdpass-1.14.3/tests/test_xkcdpass.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/tests/__init__.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/eff-long
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/eff-short
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/eff-special
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/fin-kotus
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/ita-wiki
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/legacy
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/static/spa-mich
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/xkcd_password.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass/__init__.py
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.1
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/entry_points.txt
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/not-zip-safe
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/PKG-INFO
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/SOURCES.txt
xkcdpass-1.14.3/xkcdpass.egg-info/top_level.txt
root@kerneltalks # cd xkcdpass-1.14.3
root@kerneltalks # python setup.py install
running install
running bdist_egg
running egg_info
writing xkcdpass.egg-info/PKG-INFO
writing top-level names to xkcdpass.egg-info/top_level.txt
writing dependency_links to xkcdpass.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
writing entry points to xkcdpass.egg-info/entry_points.txt
reading manifest file 'xkcdpass.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
reading manifest template 'MANIFEST.in'
writing manifest file 'xkcdpass.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
installing library code to build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg
running install_lib
running build_py
creating build
creating build/lib
creating build/lib/xkcdpass
copying xkcdpass/xkcd_password.py -> build/lib/xkcdpass
copying xkcdpass/__init__.py -> build/lib/xkcdpass
creating build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/eff-long -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/eff-short -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/eff-special -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/fin-kotus -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/ita-wiki -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/legacy -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
copying xkcdpass/static/spa-mich -> build/lib/xkcdpass/static
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/xkcd_password.py -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/__init__.py -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/eff-long -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/eff-short -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/eff-special -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/fin-kotus -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/ita-wiki -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/legacy -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
copying build/lib/xkcdpass/static/spa-mich -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/static
byte-compiling build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/xkcd_password.py to xkcd_password.pyc
byte-compiling build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/xkcdpass/__init__.py to __init__.pyc
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/PKG-INFO -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/SOURCES.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/dependency_links.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/entry_points.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/not-zip-safe -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying xkcdpass.egg-info/top_level.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
creating dist
creating 'dist/xkcdpass-1.14.3-py2.7.egg' and adding 'build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg' to it
removing 'build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg' (and everything under it)
Processing xkcdpass-1.14.3-py2.7.egg
creating /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/xkcdpass-1.14.3-py2.7.egg
Extracting xkcdpass-1.14.3-py2.7.egg to /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages
Adding xkcdpass 1.14.3 to easy-install.pth file
Installing xkcdpass script to /usr/bin
Installed /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/xkcdpass-1.14.3-py2.7.egg
Processing dependencies for xkcdpass==1.14.3
Finished processing dependencies for xkcdpass==1.14.3
```

Now running `xkcdpass`

command will give you a random set of dictionary words like below –

```
root@kerneltalks # xkcdpass
broadside unpadded osmosis statistic cosmetics lugged
```

You can use these words as input to other commands like `md5sum`

to get the random password (like below) or you can even use the Nth letter of each word to form your password!

```
root@kerneltalks # xkcdpass |md5sum
45f2ec9b3ca980c7afbd100268c74819 -
root@kerneltalks # xkcdpass |md5sum
ad79546e8350744845c001d8836f2ff2 -
```

Or even you can use all those words together as such a long password which is easy to remember for a user and very hard to crack using the computer program.

There are tools like [Diceware](http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html), [KeePassX](https://www.keepassx.org/), [Revelation](https://packages.debian.org/sid/gnome/revelation), [PasswordMaker](https://passwordmaker.org/) for Linux which can be considered for making strong random passwords.

There’s an another simple way to do that

Running:

head -c 21 /dev/urandom |base64

You can change the number in order to get more characters

I remain mystified about the raison d’etre for these applications. They are not any good for generating passwords that people will remember; there are several techniques to create passwords off the top of one’s head that will be reasonably difficult to break, and memorable at the same time. When it comes generating random passwords that will be protected by a master password, piping /dev/[u]random, as suggested, is more than enough. For throwaway passwords (for sites that obnoxiously force you to register, even if you are going to visit them once) they are irrelevant. Quite frankly, they do little more than filling out a much-needed gap in the Linux world.

good article

thanks for sharing this article