PasswordMaker Forums

Firefox/SeaMonkey/Mozilla/Netscape/Flock Browser Extension => Help and Support => Topic started by: John Doe on October 29, 2007, 11:07:47 PM

Title: Password Length/Strength
Post by: John Doe on October 29, 2007, 11:07:47 PM

Thanks for making PasswordMaker, first of all.

Question: According to the password strength meter, longer passwords are sometimes less secure than shorter ones. How is this possible? The longer one still contains the shorter one, but adds additional characters. Surely this is a mistake, no?

Title: Re: Password Length/Strength
Post by: tanstaafl on October 30, 2007, 12:44:53 AM

The meter isn't very accurate. It is on the list of things to fix, but isn't considered a high priority.

As for password strength - the more characters + the more non alpha-numeric characters, the stronger the password.

I use the default character set, 12 character length, and add 3 more random characters (random for anyone else that is) in a random (again, for anyone else but me) pattern prior to submission to the site, for a 15 character password.

Title: Re: Password Length/Strength
Post by: Eric H. Jung on October 30, 2007, 04:03:42 AM

The meter is just eye candy, really, because the algorithm used to calculate strength is really lame... just as tanstaafl wrote. I have to fix that.