Perfect Passwords – with ease

Update!
PswGen toolbar now works on FireFox versions 3.6.x and 4.1beta. Available at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/13261/

Update!iPhone1
iPhone/iPod Touch version now in active development. Well, as active as possible given my other work commitments. Coming very soon, I hope! Most of the work is in figuring out how to play nicely with the XCode development environment and finding my way around the iPhone API libraries, but I can’t imagine it’ll take too long. Watch this space. If you’d like to be in on the alpha testing, please drop me a comment here and I’ll get back to you shortly.


Sidebar
Update!
The Windows 7 Desktop Gadget is now functional! Still working out how to package it for distribution, though. And it’s butt-ugly (any volunteers to beautify it?). But it works.

It probably also works as a Vista Sidebar Gadget too, as the framework is the same, but I’m lucky enough to have avoided Vista so far.

Watch this space for another update, when I’ll announce the public release. In the meantime, if you’re desperate, leave me a comment and I’ll send you all the source.

Update! The PswGen toolbar for FireFox is now available on the Mozilla Addons site.
pswgenb
I’d appreciate any feedback; preferably on the PswGen addon page on the Mozilla site, but feel free to leave comments here if you’d like a personal reply (Mozilla doesn’t supply contact details). Note that the addon is currently still in the “experimental” sandbox, so you may have to register or login to the Mozilla site before you’ll be allowed to install it.

This is really simple to use. Enter your name, your favourite password and number into the toolbar. Switch on the “follow me” mode (you’ll find it in the Options of the addon), and as you move around the web (or even between tabs within the browser), it will generate high-security password for you, ready to use. Click the “Copy” button to send it to the clipboard, then paste it wherever you need it.

The PswGen project is unfunded. If you’d like to help out, you can make a donation:


Update! The standalone Windows executable now available to download at [download id="5"].
Password Generator Screen Snapshot

Update! The web service is now available at http://pwd.pembi.net
pswgenws

Where it all started…
PswGen: Ken's Password Generator
(and no, that’s not my real password there!)

This page originally appeared as a blog posting, but PswGen has since evolved into something approaching “product” status, so I thought a proper page might be appropriate to track progress, releases, etc.

When I wasn’t in bed with the dreaded lurgy a few weekends back, I was playing with Python a bit more. The result? The first official public release of my password generator program, PswGen. Really it’s nothing more than a GUI onto the Python back-end I talked about recently when I started learning Python. I’ve continued down the Python road here, so if you’re on Windows, download and run the Python installer first. Contemporary Mac and Linux desktops all include Python as standard. You’ll also need the wxPython widget library, which enables the windowed controls, check if your distribution needs them.

Once you’ve got Python up and running (don’t panic, it’s very lightweight, easy to install and not intrusive), download the PswGen zip file:

[download id="4"]

Unpack it to somewhere on your hard drive, then create a desktop shortcut to the PswGen.py file. TIP for Windows users: rename the main program file PswGen.py to PswGen.pyw – this forces Python to run “windowed” and kills the otherwise annoying command prompt box. For added convenience, drag a copy of that shortcut onto your quick-launch bar.

A bit more information about what this does: It uses your input values to create a highly-secure hash code, which is then used to look up character values from a string of easily-entered and confustion-resistant options. The password generated in this way appears to be random rubbish. Change one character of one of the inputs, and the entire password changes. These passwords are extremely resistant to dictionary attacks, social-engineering educated guesses, and brute-force cracks. Also, because you never need to actually type them (cut & paste to your heart’s content!), you’re even protected against keyloggers. Ain’t that cool?

NONE of the information you enter is recorded. It is NEVER sent over the net or written to the disk by this code. This is one of the reasons that source code is supplied – you don’t have to take my word for it. Check the code yourself. Change it, if you like.

What’s next?

Don’t expect lightening progress, this is a hobby-project that I spend half an hour on every now and again.

In the meantime, I hope this is of value to you. If you do use it, I’d very much appreciate your comments and feedback. The code is licensed under the GPL which basically means you can use it for free, modify it, copy it, distribute it, give it away… just about anything you like provided you don’t make money from it. And give credit where due! Full source code is included. If you happen to be a Python expert and have some tips to offer, I’d love to hear those too.

And a final word if you do decide to use this: as handy as it is, PswGen is not the beginning and the end of your security philosophy. Ultra-high security requirements call for multi-factor authentication, and while PswGen can certainly help with one factor, don’t neglect the others. Also, don’t forget to change your passwords occasionally. Log on to each site in turn, using PswGen to supply the existing password, then ask the site to change your password. Now go back to PswGen and change just the secret word and/or number, and you’ll have a completely different password that isn’t remotely related (visually) to the old one.

I must say, this has been something of a journey for me. It started off as an idle idea, then an experiment in learning Python. I’ve since had to re-deploy in pure PHP as my web host’s version of Python is too old, and again in Javascript as a FireFox add-in. The Windows .exe version is in Delphi, and for the WM and iPhone variants I’ll probably need C. Not bad for a project that was supposed to be all Python. –sigh–iPhone1