Tip for generating passwords/serial numbers

[Peter Fox]

The recent thread in generating PINs reminded me:

Suppose I want to give someone a random password or ID then this is what
I do:
(1) Generate a hash, eg. MD5 form something, possibly a random number.
This gives a string in hex.
(2) Truncate it to the required number of characters

THEN
(3) Substitute the characters 0,1,5,8,B,C with eg h,k,p,r,t,w,x,y.
eg "AB15708" might become "AKTX7YH"

THE REASON is that O/0 1/l 5/S 8/B c/C can be mis-read. (Also M and N
are not suitable substitutes as if they are read over the phone are
easily confused. )

Personally for 1-off numbers I prefer to have a longer string and use
all upper case but for passwords use mixed case and shorter string to
encourage users to mix their case when they pick their own.


--
PETER FOX Not the same since the submarine business went under
pe******@eminent.demon.co.uk.not.this.bit.no.html
2 Tees Close, Witham, Essex.
Gravity beer in Essex <http://www.eminent.demon.co.uk>

[Alvaro G Vicario]

*** Peter Fox wrote/escribió (Tue, 2 Aug 2005 09:54:31 +0100):

Suppose I want to give someone a random password or ID then this is what
I do:
(1) Generate a hash, eg. MD5 form something, possibly a random number.
This gives a string in hex.
(2) Truncate it to the required number of characters

THEN
(3) Substitute the characters 0,1,5,8,B,C with eg h,k,p,r,t,w,x,y.
eg "AB15708" might become "AKTX7YH"

It's a very complicate algorithm to just produce a password that will only
use 16 different characters, isn't it?
http://es.php.net/mt_rand (check the user notes for examples)
http://es.php.net/uniqueid
--
-- Álvaro G. Vicario - Burgos, Spain
-- http://bits.demogracia.com - Mi sitio sobre programación web
-- Don't e-mail me your questions, post them to the group
--

[Geoff Berrow]

I noticed that Message-ID: <98**************@eminent.demon.co.uk> from
Peter Fox contained the following:

THEN
(3) Substitute the characters 0,1,5,8,B,C with eg h,k,p,r,t,w,x,y.
eg "AB15708" might become "AKTX7YH"

hmm, not very memorable though.

www.ckdog.co.uk/php/randpass.php
--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

[xeno]

thanks for tips