Practical tools for system, network, security, and operations administrators.

SEC-C0004 · Cryptography & Encoding

What Makes a Strong Password?

Choose one password or passphrase on this device. The generators do not store it. Do not reuse the sample.

Updated 25 October 2026 · Explainer

This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.

What this hour is for

Length and uniqueness matter more than a clever word. The generator, the entropy checker, and the passphrase tool run locally.

A sample is not a password you keep. You do not put the result in the ticket, in git, or in chat.

192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. A sample password is replaced. It is not a password you keep.

The change you can finish

Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the system named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the system, then decide.

Rollback is the file, the record, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.

  1. Generate one candidate.
  2. Read the entropy note.
  3. Store it in the password store, not the ticket.
  4. Discard the sample on the page.
  5. Stop.

Mistakes that outlive the statement

What Makes a Strong Password? goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.

Decisions to write down

One decision for What Makes a Strong Password?: The password is in the password store. The page copy was discarded. And it is not reused.

Checks before you call it done

Confirm this before you call the change done: One password was chosen. It is not on the page. No secret is in the note. It is not reused. And the account is yours. If one of those fails, stop.

# Generate locally. Do not file the password.
# 192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. A sample password is replaced. It is not a password you keep.

Before you leave the system

What Makes a Strong Password? ends when the system in the note is the system in the ticket. If it is not, stop.

The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log in, does not scan, and does not send mail.

192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you publish because a draft included them.

prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save. A sample password is replaced. It is not a password you keep.

One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it.

If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. Restore the copy you took first.

A second person reads the scope aloud. If they cannot find it in the ticket, the note is not done.

This page is a planning guide. It is not legal advice, not an audit opinion, not a vendor manual, and not the text of a standard. You do not disable a security control to make a check pass. You do not use the page against a system you do not administer.

Tools for this guide

These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.

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