To create and remember passwords for online services, the best practice for most folks online is to use a password management tool such as Bitwarden to generate long, cryptographically random passwords. Then, a very strong passphrase is used to lock the password manager.
Unfortunately, in a misguided attempt to encourage users to choose better passwords, many websites and apps enforce restrictive password policies. These policies inhibit users from using cryptographically random password generators: a long, high-entropy password is more likely to violate such rules, which means a security-savvy user may have to attempt several "random" passwords before one is accepted. This punishes users who are trying to follow best practices.
Enter dumbpw. dumbpw allows you to configure a set of rules, and then it will generate a cryptographically secure password that conforms to those dumb rules.
If all you need is a password generator, you should not use this.
- dumbpw uses secrets to generate passwords. If the generated string doesn't meet the given requirements, dumbpw discards it and generates another, until one passes. Therefore, if you ask dumbpw to generate a long password with high minimums, it will run for a very long time before terminating.
- Likewise, if your minimums require characters that are banned in the blocklist option, dumbpw will run forever.
- The author is neither a cryptographer, nor a security expert. There has been no formal, independent, external security review of this software. As explained in the LICENSE, the author assumes no responsibility or liability for your use of this software.
- Apple's Password Rules Validation Tool
To install development dependencies, you will need poetry and pre-commit.
direnv is optional, but recommended for convenience.