Generates a strong password in ASCII up to 256 characters. (BUILT FOR *NIX and MacOS SYSTEMS!)
To build the base program, run:
gcc main.c -o genpass
I also included a quick program made by ChatGPT to calculate the average of my bit entropy dataset, if you want to verify the average you can
compile the average_calculator.c program.
Pretty much, the program generates a long string from a matrix of numbers that represent ASCII characters.
The average bit entropy of the 1000 passwords I generated at length 25 was 148.616 using the zxcvbn algorithm (https://dropbox.tech/security/zxcvbn-realistic-password-strength-estimation),
however feel free to test larger data sets. I also included a generated list from KeePassXC's password generating algorithm, just for users to verify certain statistics.
The weakness compared to KPXC's algorithm is about 3-4% weaker in regards to bit entropy, but has a lower time complexity.
To use the password-generator, simply call genpass -l <LENGTH>. It supports STDOUT so you can pipe the outputted password to a file if you wish.
genpass -l 20 will generate a password from ASCII values 32->126. However, you can also invoke command-line arguments that can change the characters used in the string.
: Command-Line Arguments :
-c : Removes spaces from generated strings.
-u : Uppercase characters only.
-x : Lowercase characters only.
-m : Mix of uppercase and lowercase characters.
-n : Numeric characters only.
For example, genpass -n -l 20 would generate a string of numbers with the length of 20.
Feel free to fork the program with a precompiled Windows binary included. I might create one eventually, but it's not particularly high on my 'todo list.' Some notes for developers:
- The pseudorandom number generation in the Gordion Knot Algorithm uses the PID in it's seed generation. This is the only function that requires a system library.
- You may also want to include a GUI for Windows as I have 0 experience in UI/UX design, which is why I intended this software to be used as a CLI program.