For years I’ve stored my passwords in Vim-encrypted files and used PwdHash1 to generate some of these passwords. Each password that PwdHash produces is impossible for me to memorize and a pain to type, but fortunately probably impossible for a human to guess. Unfortunately, a machine can probably figure out my PwdHash-generated passwords pretty quickly (because I’ve used PwdHash to generate shortish passwords). Now, in 2025, I’m in the process of changing my passwords to passphrases, which will be easier for me to memorize and type. And hopefully harder for machines to figure out!
The best way to start learning about passphrases is this XKCD comic:
Thanks to this popular comic (xkcd.com/936/), some people use “correct-horse-battery-staple” as a synonym for passphrase. To learn more about passphrases, see wikipedia.org/wiki/Passphrase.
Apps that include a passphrase generator
- github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc
- lots more
Online passphrase generators
- atoponce.github.io/webpassgen/
- www.dinopass.com/
- proton.me/pass/password-generator (choose the “Memorable” button to get passphrases)
- lots more
Endnote
To learn about PwdHash, see crypto.stanford.edu/PwdHash. To use it online, see pwdhash.github.io/website/. ↩︎
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