Richard Hyman -- Programmer's Corner

PassGen2

by Rick Hyman

Donationware for OS X.

I have always had a problem keeping track of all the different passwords needed for personal items and various web sites. I don't like writing them down in one place, because that just doesn't seem secure. Plus, everyone knows that a password too easy to remember is probably not a very good password.

So, I decided to create a program that generates a password based on a "seed". A seed is an easy to remember word or phrase, just like a password. But, you should never use your seed as a password anywhere.

Sixteen hard to remember password are then generated consisting of random capital and small letters and numbers. The password can be copied and pasted into any dialog box requesting a password.

You don't have to remember the complicated passwords. Just launch PassGen2 once again and input the same seed that you used to generate the passwords.

PassGen2 uses a pseudo "one-way hash function" to generate passwords from an input seed. This allows the user to create totally random passwords without having to write down or remember an unusual password.

To generate a password, just launch PassGen2 and input a simple seed in the Seed field. It's still not a good idea to use anything too obvious for the seed, such as your own name. After all, PassGen will be available to all. The generated password will have the same number of characters as the input seed. If you need longer passwords or a passwords of specific length, input a number in the Length field other than 0 (zero). The maximum length of generated passwords is 20 characters.

For example, an input seed of "Rick" will generate a password that is 4 characters long. A seed of "Rick" and a Length of "9"will generate a password that is 9 characters long. The 9 character passwords are completely different from the 4 character passwords. Note that the seed is case sensitive, so "rick" will generate a different 4 character password.

PassGen2 is donationware; I request a small donation for use in non-commercial, non-business environments. Instructions are in the ReadMe file included in the download.

click to download: PassGen2 (about 88k in size)