Having a weak password is not good for a system that demands high confidentiality and security of user credentials. It turns out that people find it difficult to make up a strong password that is strong enough to prevent unauthorized users from memorizing it.
This article uses a mixture of numbers, alphabets, and other symbols found on the computer keyboard to form a 12-character password which is unpredictable and cannot easily be memorized.
Generating Strong Password using Python
- The components of the password are represented in the form of arrays.
- Use the random method to select at least one character from each array of characters.
- Since the 12-character password is required, so fill the rest of the length of the password left with randomly selected characters from an array formed from the combination of all the characters needed in the final password. Anytime the password is generated, shuffle the password using random.shuffle() to ensure that the final password does not follow a particular pattern.
Python3
import randomimport array# maximum length of password needed# this can be changed to suit your password lengthMAX_LEN = 12# declare arrays of the character that we need in out password# Represented as chars to enable easy string concatenationDIGITS = ['0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'] LOCASE_CHARACTERS = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z']UPCASE_CHARACTERS = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'U', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z']SYMBOLS = ['@', '#', '$', '%', '=', ':', '?', '.', '/', '|', '~', '>', '*', '(', ')', '<']# combines all the character arrays above to form one arrayCOMBINED_LIST = DIGITS + UPCASE_CHARACTERS + LOCASE_CHARACTERS + SYMBOLS# randomly select at least one character from each character set aboverand_digit = random.choice(DIGITS)rand_upper = random.choice(UPCASE_CHARACTERS)rand_lower = random.choice(LOCASE_CHARACTERS)rand_symbol = random.choice(SYMBOLS)# combine the character randomly selected above# at this stage, the password contains only 4 characters but# we want a 12-character passwordtemp_pass = rand_digit + rand_upper + rand_lower + rand_symbol# now that we are sure we have at least one character from each# set of characters, we fill the rest of# the password length by selecting randomly from the combined# list of character above.for x in range(MAX_LEN - 4): temp_pass = temp_pass + random.choice(COMBINED_LIST) # convert temporary password into array and shuffle to # prevent it from having a consistent pattern # where the beginning of the password is predictable temp_pass_list = array.array('u', temp_pass) random.shuffle(temp_pass_list)# traverse the temporary password array and append the chars# to form the passwordpassword = ""for x in temp_pass_list: password = password + x # print out passwordprint(password) |
Output :
yf2byU$@zTg5
Explanation:
Here we are importing the array module and also the random module because we’ll need to generate random choices in the list of alphabets, digits or special characters.
And hence we’re then generating a password that follows the characteristics of a strong password.
