A command-line tool to generate cryptographically strong passwords, passphrases, and tokens in pure python.
python +3.9
To be secure against brute-force attacks, tokens need to have sufficient randomness. Unfortunately, what is considered sufficient will necessarily increase as computers get more powerful and able to make more guesses in a shorter period. As of 2015, it is believed that 32 bytes (256 bits) of randomness is sufficient for the typical use-case expected for the secrets module.
It is probably best to not print secrets to the terminal, which this CLI does by default. When using this CLI to generate secrets in the real-world, then pipe the secret to your clipboard. e.g.
python pwgen.py password | xclip -select clipboardpython pwgen.py -husage: pwgen [-h] [-e] {password,passphrase,token,url-token} ...
Generate cryptographically strong random passwords, phrases, and url tokens
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-e, --entropy print entropy (default: False)
subcommands:
{password,passphrase,token,url-token}
subcommand help
password generate random password
passphrase generate random XKCD-style passphrase
token generate random text string
url-token generate random URL-safe text stringShow the password command help
python pwgen.py password -husage: pwgen password [-h] [-l LENGTH] [-p]
Generate cryptographically strong alphanumeric random password with at least
one lowercase character, at least one uppercase character, and at least one
digit.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-l LENGTH, --length LENGTH
character length of password (default: 40)
-p, --punctuation include punctuation in password (default: False)The following -e flag will show the entropy (in bits) of the generated
password and the number of possible passwords combinations.
python pwgen.py -e passwordSQs7w9U8DypwQ2MVCFRC9qCkVcxX1atWcb4HtkRy
entropy: 238 bits
possible combinations: 4.962123624593671e+71The following -l flag changes the length of the generated password, which
must be greater than 13 characters (defaults to 40).
python pwgen.py password -l 13Password length must be greater than 13 charactersThe following -p flag adds punctuation to the password.
python pwgen.py password -pShow the passphrase command help
python pwgen.py passphrase -husage: pwgen passphrase [-h] [-l LENGTH] [-c] [-d {-,.,,,_,+,~,*}] [-f FILE]
Generate a XKCD-style passphrase from randomly selected words from a word-list
file. On standard Linux systems, it searches in common locations for word files
to use. Other platforms may need to provide their own word-list. Words are
randomly chosen to be uppercase or lowercase unless -c (--capitalize) is used,
in which case the randomly selected words are Proper Case. The delimiter between
words is also randomly chosen unless -d (--delimiter) is used.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-l LENGTH, --length LENGTH
number of words in passphrase (default: 5)
-c, --capitalize capitalize words (default: False)
-d {-,.,,,_,+,~,*}, --delimiter {-,.,,,_,+,~,*}
delimiter to separate words in passphrase (default: None)
-f FILE, --file FILE word file used to generate passphrase (default: None)Use the passphrase command to generate an XKCD-style passphrase with each word
capitalized.
./pwgen.py passphrasegasteropoda*reviewing*tenementary*eghen*BIOPHOREUse the -d flag to generate a passphrase with a delimiter between words.
Available delimeters are -,.,,,_,+,~,*
./pwgen.py passphrase -d "-"GOUTY-MATERIALISTICAL-MYOPY-pusillanimously-FORMALLYShow the token command help
python pwgen.py token -husage: pwgen token [-h] [-l LENGTH]
Generate a random text string, in hexadecimal, with a minimum of 256 bits
of randomness. The string has nbytes random bytes, each byte converted to
two hex digits.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-l LENGTH, --length LENGTH
number of random bytes in token (default: 32)Use the token command to generate a random token
python pwgen.py tokenShow the url-token command help
python pwgen.py url-token -husage: pwgen url-token [-h] [-l LENGTH]
Generate a random, hard-to-guess URL-safe text string with a minimum of 256
bits of randomness. Could be used as a security token, for example,
suitable for password recovery applications.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-l LENGTH, --length LENGTH
number of random bytes in token (default: 32)Use the url-token command to generate a random url-safe token.
python pwgen.py url-token