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Create a stupidly complicated random passkey using the Linux command line.

This command line shows how to use a simple one-liner to create a horribly complicated password using the Linux command line.

4.4 Thu Feb 28 jason@Yog-Sothoth 0: $ cat /dev/urandom | tr -cd '\11\12\15\40-\176' | head -n 1
U\-mnQyDp'R7Aen][VzYt@cyiqgzU|5Z-DODo91>7_z%RUQ'nA66S`S~BUAy(Two-B~AtI@M!U"TqG?7xdI@*Tp;"ywUpV/65x"!$HN`jj8Ox-VPt!<<;?nUK%f

Remove all nonsense characters from the string, using this tr command.

tr -cd '\11\12\15\40-\176'

This leaves only characters that can be typed on a keyboard.

This is a better example.

4.4 Thu Feb 28 jason@Yog-Sothoth 0: $ tr -dc "[:print:]" < /dev/urandom | head -c 128 ; echo
:S'f0FHwUn46X"HSvnu3.iP4EZT%E,pc/6ouad)>FbDv0L|Hs;H;&4|2m%+yDg=!$+S2J6c3H#_F-TBEc{IC":#JDILvj]EfrqQ^`~['J+ARZRO3pY -Tu"@{sgqVqfU

This is a very good way to generate a very nice random string on your Linux computer.

Generate a password from GRUB this way, but this provides only minimal security.

4.4 Thu Feb 28 jason@Yog-Sothoth 0: $ grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2 
Enter password: 
Reenter password: 
PBKDF2 hash of your password is grub.pbkdf2.sha512.10000.129864E6A85A3E5AABFB1CA47AEE6E1CFE7B41946A65318A34E177F9BF79A72BA203E05B8A33526C49D36A114DD07EAB1958ED52D436D2A59EBA68BCBF81537E.BA417418ECC1F18FCC91CDF421351BEB8DD403EFD3FA2A0FA63ABA82A1ADA5757469AFA32E22CFF4391CF57D7E120C71AA554D04371DD4A71046906A7D29B36F

This generates a nice 24 character password for your Linux uses. This is still very complicated.

4.4 Thu Feb 28 jason@Yog-Sothoth 0: $ tr -dc "[:print:]" < /dev/urandom | head -c 24 ; echo
^zo]L$YQeQ0x=;2[%{]s"%TQ

Give these tips a go if you desire to have a very complex password, and want to know how to generate one on your Linux PC.

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