diceware - simple script to generate good random passphrases
diceware is a computer implementation of the real-world secure passphrase generation system which uses dice rolls to generate randomness. This system is described at http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html
This script uses the /dev/random device (via Crypt::Random) for true randomness. /dev/random maintains a small pool of entropy, and once it is used up, there may be a wait for more to build up. This means that the diceware script may take some minutes to generate a long passphrase.
The script prints the words to STDOUT.
There are 7776 short words in the diceware list, giving 2.6 x 10^19 possibilities for a five word passphrase. In theory, this passphrase should be easier to remember than the equivilent strength 10 random character word.
e.g. ernest sol abate gx domino v.s. <td&,.L[6v
diceware [options]
Options:
--help brief help message - default behaviour
--man full documentation
--words=NN REQUIRED: number of words in the passphrase- --help
-
Print a brief help message and exits. This mode is the default behaviour. - --man
-
Prints the manual page and exits. - --words=NN
-
REQUIRED: The number of words in the generated passphrase. For security this should be at least five, giving an entropy of at least 64.6 bits. Six words have 77.5 bits, seven words 90.4 bits, eight words 103 bits.
Dave Webb diceware.github@d5ve.com
diceware is free software. It comes without any warranty, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
diceware is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.
diceware contains the wordlist from http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.wordlist.asc which is also licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License by A G Reinhold.