Contents
Why is a passphrase stronger than a password?
So why is passphrase better than passwords? Passphrases are easier to remember than a random of symbols and letters combined together. It would be easier to remember a phrase from your favorite song or your favorite quotation than to remember a short but complicated password.
What is passphrase entropy?
Password entropy is a measurement of how unpredictable a password is. Password entropy predicts how difficult a given password would be to crack through guessing, brute force cracking, dictionary attacks or other common methods.
How to calculate the entropy of a password?
So, here comes the main graph: The x-axis shows the number of characters (password) respectively the number of words (passphrase) for the random chosen passwords/passphrases, while the y-axis shows the bits of entropy which the password/passphrase actually has. (The raw values for the calculations can be found at the end of this post.)
Which is stronger a password or a passphrase?
–> That is: To have 80 bits of security, a password needs about 13 characters while a passphrase only needs about 5 words! However, a passphrase chosen out of 10,000 words needs 7 words to have the same strength. <– Since most passwords today have only 8 chars (51 bits of entropy), a passphrase with only 3 words (52 bits of entropy) would fit!
Which is an example of a passphrase?
A passphrase, by contrast, is making your password into a sentence, including spaces and punctuation as necessary. An example of a passphrase is “I love the Carolina Panthers!”
Can you replace 12 character passwords with 12 word passphrases?
But we don’t want to just replace 12-character passwords with 12-word passphrases—that would be a nightmare to type. Instead, choosing just a handful of normal words or phrases can work, as long as whatever associates those words in your mind are known only to you.