![]() No more using random pieces of paper or permutations of weak passwords that you can easily remember but they can easily be guessed. While the thought of keeping all of your passwords in one place can be unnerving, it is actually a plus: by knowing that all of your passwords are in one place, you can secure them easier. Using a password manager to generate and store passwords for every service is efficient and with the least amount of threat. You’re human and inevitably you will err and pick something that a computer regards as a weak choice. ![]() It is best to leave the password generation and management to a computer you trust, instead of trying to think strong passwords regularly. How to generate and store strong, secure passwords In both these cases, the “strength” of your password is nullified. Additionally, in some extreme cases, the passwords for all users are stored in ‘plaintext’ in the database. The attacker can use modern hardware (like GPU boards) combined with precomputed “rainbow” tables to decrypt the entire password file in very little time. It was broken and proven insecure a long time ago. In the second situation, if the attacker has access to the password file, it might just be a matter of time, particularly if the hash function used is MD5. However, if the target has chosen a password using relatively public information such as date, name/surname, etc then it makes it easier for the attacker to guess it. Usually, attackers discover passwords through other means, different from brute-forcing, such as phishing, malware, and such. In the first situation, the attacker will become quickly blocked by the authentication service due to too many login attempts at a short period of time. It is different and much more difficult when the attacker tries to guess your WordPress password than if he or she has compromised your security and has access to the entire hashed password list. When talking about password strength one has to include the context and the threat level. World-renowned Security expert Bruce Schneier has written an excellent post discussing password security and how to choose secure passwords. Password strength, in terms of brute-force complexity, is a topic of much debate, and the notion of how strong a password is has been largely redefined throughout the decades, as more powerful computing resources become readily available to the individual.
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