Short: An automated password generator Author: Adel I. Mirzazhanov Uploader: carsten larsen mail com (Carsten Larsen) Type: util/crypt Version: 2.3.0b-2 Architecture: m68k-amigaos >= 2.0.4 USAGE apg [-sdyltqhv] [-a algorithm] [-M mode] [-E string] [-n count] [-m length] [-x length] [-r file] [-b file] [-p length] [-c seed] DESCRIPTION apg generates several random passwords. It uses several password generation algorithms (currently two) and a built-in pseudo random number generator. Default algorithm is pronounceable password generation algorithm designed by Morrie Gasser and described in A Random Word Generator For Pronounceable Passwords National Technical Information Service (NTIS) AD-A-017676. The original paper is very old and had never been put online, so I have to use NIST implementation described in FIPS-181. Another algorithm is simple random character generation algorithm, but it uses four user-defined symbol sets to produce random password. It means that user can choose type of symbols that should appear in password. Symbol sets are: numeric symbol set (0,...,9) , capital letters symbol set (A,...,Z) , small letters symbol set (a,...,z) and special symbols symbol set (#,@,!,...). Built-in pseudo random number generator is an implementation of algorithm described in Appendix C of ANSI X9.17 or RFC1750 with exception that it uses CAST or SHA-1 instead of Triple DES. It uses local time with preci- sion of microseconds and random device (if available) to produce initial random seed. apg also have the ability to check generated password quality using dictio- nary. You can use this ability if you specify command-line options -r dict- file or -b filtername where dictfile is the dictionary file name and fil- tername is the name of Bloom filter file. In that dictionary you may place words (one per line) that should not appear as generated passwords. For example: user names, common words, etc. You even can use one of the dictio- naries that come with dictionary password crackers. Bloom filter file should be created with apgbfm utility included in apg distribution. In future releases I plan to implement some other techniques to check pass- words (like pattern check) just to make life easier The options are as follows: -a use algorithm number for password generation where number is: 0 - pronounceable password generation 1 - random character password generation -n count generate count number of passwords. Default is 6. -m length generate password with minimum length. If minimum length > maximum length then maximum length = minimum length. Default minimum password is 8. -x length generate password with maximum length. If minimum length > maximum length then maximum length = minimum length. Default maximum length password length is 10. -M mode Use symbolsets specified with mode for password generation. mode is a text string consisting of characters S, s, N, n, C, c, L, l. Where: S generator must use special symbol set for every generated password. s generator should use special symbol set for password genera- tion. N generator must use numeral symbol set for every generated password. n generator should use numeral symbol set for password genera- tion. C generator must use capital symbol set for every generated password. c generator should use capital symbol set for password genera tion. L generator must use small letters symbol set for every generated password (always present if pronounceable password generation algorithm is used). l generator should use small letters symbol set for password generation. mode cannot be more than 4 characters in length. Note: Usage of L, M, N, C will slow down password generation process. Examples: -M sncl or -M SNCL or -M Cn -E string exclude characters in string from password generation process (in pronounceable password generation mode you can not exclude small letters). To include special symbols that can be recognized by shell (apostrophe, quotes, dollar sign, etc.) in string use the backslashed versions. Examples: Command apg -a 1 -M n -n 3 -m 8 -E 23456789 will generate a set of passwords that will look like this 10100110 01111000 11011101 Command apg -a 1 -M nc -n 3 -m 26 -E GHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ will gen- erate a set of passwords that will look like this 16A1653CD4DE5E7BD9584A3476 C8F78E06944AFD57FB9CB882BC 8C8DF37CD792D36D056BBD5002 -r file check generated passwords for their appearance in dictionary file. -b file check generated passwords for their appearance in filter file. filter file should be created with apgbfm utility. -p length this option tells apg to check every substring of the generated pass- word for appearance in filter file. If any of such substrings would be found in the filter file then generated password would be rejected and apg will generate another one. length specifies minimum substring length to check. This option is active only if -b option is defined. -c seed use seed as a random seed for password generation. -s ask user for random sequence for password generation. -d do NOT use any delimiters between generated passwords. -y print generated passwords and crypted passwords. -q quiet mode (do not print warnings). -l spell generated passwords. Useful when you want to read generated password by telephone. WARNING: Think twice before read your password by phone. -t print pronunciation for generated pronounceable password. -h print help information and exit. -v print version information and exit. DEFAULT OPTIONS apg -a 0 -M sncl -n 6 -x 10 -m 8 If you want to generate really secure passwords, you should use option -s. EXIT CODE On successful completion of its task, apg will complete with exit code 0. An exit code of -1 indicates an error occurred. Textual errors are written to the standard error stream. AUTHOR Adel I. Mirzazhanov, Project home page: http://www.adel.nursat.kz/apg/