pw

Using complex, generated passwords and storing everything in a password manager is the way to go these days. Besides its accessibility, widespread use of this method can effectively bolster the security of your accounts and stave off brute-forcing attempts at cracking your passwords.

You’ll typically find that most password managers also incorporate a generator of some sort, which is convenient and appreciated. If you’re after a standalone generator, then pw may be for you: it can generate secure passwords based on your configuration, and also includes a feature whereby it can create passwords based on the words from a text file.

The program uses a cryptographic algorithm to generate various randomized sequences that can withstand brute-forcing attacks. This sequence can be altered by the end-user's configuration, which is to say that you can opt to use special characters, capitalization, as well as modify the length of the password to your preference.

However, it should be noted that the passwords are generated differently between the Characters and Words functions. The former will generate a series of characters meeting the user-set length requirement, while the latter generates words based on your configuration. These words can include special characters, capitalization, and so on, as mentioned earlier.

It is thus interesting to see that there is no length option for passwords generated with the Words function. Instead, the program merges three random words, creating a passphrase.

Alternatively, users may opt to select a text file on their computer for the app to use. Doing so will generate passphrases based on the words therein. It works best when there’s one word per column.

If the selected text file contains sentences, the program often displays an Unhandled Exception Occurred error, and the generated passwords aren’t passwords at all, just a series of words with spaces between them.

As a standalone generator, pw is an interesting utility. Though it offers users some configurations to influence the generation process, the program paradoxically feels somewhat limited by a few curious restrictions between the Characters and Words generators; such that you cannot specify the types of characters to be used in the former, or increase/decrease the length of passphrases in the latter.