Random Password Generator from the Command Line

Sometimes you will need to create a pre-shared key (PSK) for a VPN or a password for a website.  One of the tools you can use is pwgen.  You can install pwgen on the follwing platforms:

 macOS  running Homebrew by running brew install pwgen

Ubuntu sudo apt install -y pwgen

Red Hat  sudo dnf install pwgen

There is a Windows version of PWgen but the only Windows I have are the ones on my wall that allow me to look outside 😀.

-s “secure” option generates “random, not easily memorized passwords”
-y denotes password should include at least one symbol (special charecter)
-n denotes password should include at least on numeric value
-c denotes password should inclide at least on capital letter
-B denotes password should not contain ambiguos charectors such as l (lowercase L), 1 (number 1), 0 (number 0), O (letter O)
-l denotes password should be easily remembered

%Length% denotes the length of the password in characters
%Number% specifies that only one password should be generated

pwgen -Bync 23 20

This is telling pwgen that we want 20 passwords, each 23 charecters each, non ambiguous, containing special charecters, with numbers, and capital letters.

This is the output you will see when you run the above command.

You can always right them to a file by adding the > %filename% after it.

pwgen -Bync 23 20 > passwordlist.txt

Hope this helps