OpenSSL comes in handy when you need to generate random passwords, for example for system accounts and services. In this short post I’ll give you a quick example on how to generate random passwords with OpenSSL in Linux (Bash), Windows and PHP…
Pseudo-random passwords and strings with OpenSSL
The OpenSSL rand command can be used to create random passwords for system accounts, services or online accounts. The rand command outputs num pseudo-random bytes after seeding the random number generator once.
You only have to decide the byte-length of your password or string, and OpenSSL does all the calculations.
For example an 8 byte pseudo-random string, hex encoded output:
Code language: Bash (bash)$ openssl rand -hex 8 28dbc04b1a90fbf4
Or an 8 byte random string, base64 encoded output:
Code language: Bash (bash)$ openssl rand -base64 8 7UON8PQIYHg=
OpenSSL on Windows
Generate random passwords in Windows using OpenSSL
If you have installed OpenSSL on Windows, you can use the same openssl command on Windows to generate a pseudo-random password or string:
c:\Users\Jan>C:\OpenSSL-Win64\bin\openssl.exe rand -hex 8
33247ca41c60ac53Code language: PowerShell (powershell)PHP OpenSSL – create a pseudo-random password with PHP and OpenSSL
In PHP you can use openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(), with bin2hex() for readability:
<?php
var_dump( bin2hex( openssl_random_pseudo_bytes( 8, $cstrong ) ) );
?>Code language: PHP (php)Yes, hexadecimal strings are all lower-case… All you need now is a way to remember these generated strings and passwords… ;-)
Bonus: Use PowerShell to create a random password:
1..14 | ForEach { $my_passwd = $my_passwd + [char](New-Object System.Random( (get-date).Millisecond + $_ )).next(65,127) }
Code language: PowerShell (powershell)