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HSXKPasswd – A Secure Memorable Password Generator

Inspired by the XKCD webcomic below, and by Steve Gibson’s Password Haystacks page, HSXKPasswd is a Perl module (Crypt::HSXKPasswd) and terminal command (hsxkpasswd) for generating passwords that are secure, memorable, and easy to read, type, and share over the phone. The module is released under a FreeBSD open-source license. The HSXKPasswd Perl module powers the online password generator at www.xkpasswd.net

*Download via GitHub*

This utility is provided entirely for free, but has taken a considerable amount of time and effort to create, and continues to take time to develop and maintain. Please consider making a small contribution towards the time I dedicate to this project.

The module has been completely re-written from the ground up in the summer of 2014 to make it more programmer friendly and easier to use. This new version of the module is hosted and managed on GitHub, and the latest stable release is available via CPAN.

Links

• HSXKPasswd GitHub Page
• Crypt::HSXKPasswd on CPAN
• The Perl POD Documentation for the Module (including a detailed description of the philosophy and mathematics underlying the module’s design)

Quick Install Guide

You can install the latest stable release of the perl module and terminal command via CPAN:

sudo cpan Crypt::HSXKPasswd

Note: due to problems with another package (File::HomeDir) this command alone is not enough to get Crypt::HSXKPasswd installed on MacOS ATM (June 2019) — there is an easy workaround.

Related Blog Posts

• Crypt::HSXKPasswd on MacOS (File::HomeDir workaround) (4 June 2019)
• hsxkpasswd Without sudo (with perlbrew) (15 December 2015)
• Using the hsxkpasswd Terminal Command (Part 2 of 2) (6 September 2015)
• Using the hsxkpasswd Terminal Command (Part 1 of 2) (22 August 2015)
• Crypt::HSXKPasswd and hsxkpasswd now on CPAN (11 August 2015)
• Uninstalling a Crypt::HSXKPasswd Beta (8 August 2015)
• Announcing Crypt::HSXKPasswd Beta 4 (19 July 2015)
• Announcing Crypt::HSXKPasswd Beta 3 (13 July 2015)
• Announcing Crypt::HSXKPasswd Beta 2 – now with more command-line! (8 June 2015)
• Getting Started with Crypt::HSXKPasswd (28 May 2015)

Old Versions

• Version 0.2.1 (7 August 2012) – release notes
• Version 0.2 (20 July 2012) – Release notes
• Version 0.1 (3 October 2011) – Release notes