Passwords

Boing-boing had an interesting article on passwords: Top 500 worst passwords
As I recycle it from them, they recycled it from a website that has recycled it again from a book “Perfect Passwords: Selection, Protection, Authentication” by Mark Burnett; I’m sure just to have you clicking the link to Amazon to make money. So there is a lot of pushing second hand information around the internet. The website has been down due to incoming traffic, but this mirror of the site had the original list, which I will publish (in fact: copy & paste) here:

NO Top 1-100 Top 101–200 Top 201–300 Top 301–400 Top 401–500
1 123456 porsche firebird prince rosebud
2 password guitar butter beach jaguar
3 12345678 chelsea united amateur great
4 1234 black turtle 7777777 cool
5 pussy diamond steelers muffin cooper
6 12345 nascar tiffany redsox 1313
7 dragon jackson zxcvbn star scorpio
8 qwerty cameron tomcat testing mountain
9 696969 654321 golf shannon madison
10 mustang computer bond007 murphy 987654
11 letmein amanda bear frank brazil
12 baseball wizard tiger hannah lauren
13 master xxxxxxxx doctor dave japan
14 michael money gateway eagle1 naked
15 football phoenix gators 11111 squirt
16 shadow mickey angel mother stars
17 monkey bailey junior nathan apple
18 abc123 knight thx1138 raiders alexis
19 pass iceman porno steve aaaa
20 fuckme tigers badboy forever bonnie
21 6969 purple debbie angela peaches
22 jordan andrea spider viper jasmine
23 harley horny melissa ou812 kevin
24 ranger dakota booger jake matt
25 iwantu aaaaaa 1212 lovers qwertyui
26 jennifer player flyers suckit danielle
27 hunter sunshine fish gregory beaver
28 fuck morgan porn buddy 4321
29 2000 starwars matrix whatever 4128
30 test boomer teens young runner
31 batman cowboys scooby nicholas swimming
32 trustno1 edward jason lucky dolphin
33 thomas charles walter helpme gordon
34 tigger girls cumshot jackie casper
35 robert booboo boston monica stupid
36 access coffee braves midnight shit
37 love xxxxxx yankee college saturn
38 buster bulldog lover baby gemini
39 1234567 ncc1701 barney cunt apples
40 soccer rabbit victor brian august
41 hockey peanut tucker mark 3333
42 killer john princess startrek canada
43 george johnny mercedes sierra blazer
44 sexy gandalf 5150 leather cumming
45 andrew spanky doggie 232323 hunting
46 charlie winter zzzzzz 4444 kitty
47 superman brandy gunner beavis rainbow
48 asshole compaq horney bigcock 112233
49 fuckyou carlos bubba happy arthur
50 dallas tennis 2112 sophie cream
51 jessica james fred ladies calvin
52 panties mike johnson naughty shaved
53 pepper brandon xxxxx giants surfer
54 1111 fender tits booty samson
55 austin anthony member blonde kelly
56 william blowme boobs fucked paul
57 daniel ferrari donald golden mine
58 golfer cookie bigdaddy 0 king
59 summer chicken bronco fire racing
60 heather maverick penis sandra 5555
61 hammer chicago voyager pookie eagle
62 yankees joseph rangers packers hentai
63 joshua diablo birdie einstein newyork
64 maggie sexsex trouble dolphins little
65 biteme hardcore white 0 redwings
66 enter 666666 topgun chevy smith
67 ashley willie bigtits winston sticky
68 thunder welcome bitches warrior cocacola
69 cowboy chris green sammy animal
70 silver panther super slut broncos
71 richard yamaha qazwsx 8675309 private
72 fucker justin magic zxcvbnm skippy
73 orange banana lakers nipples marvin
74 merlin driver rachel power blondes
75 michelle marine slayer victoria enjoy
76 corvette angels scott asdfgh girl
77 bigdog fishing 2222 vagina apollo
78 cheese david asdf toyota parker
79 matthew maddog video travis qwert
80 121212 hooters london hotdog time
81 patrick wilson 7777 paris sydney
82 martin butthead marlboro rock women
83 freedom dennis srinivas xxxx voodoo
84 ginger fucking internet extreme magnum
85 blowjob captain action redskins juice
86 nicole bigdick carter erotic abgrtyu
87 sparky chester jasper dirty 777777
88 yellow smokey monster ford dreams
89 camaro xavier teresa freddy maxwell
90 secret steven jeremy arsenal music
91 dick viking 11111111 access14 rush2112
92 falcon snoopy bill wolf russia
93 taylor blue crystal nipple scorpion
94 111111 eagles peter iloveyou rebecca
95 131313 winner pussies alex tester
96 123123 samantha cock florida mistress
97 bitch house beer eric phantom
98 hello miller rocket legend billy
99 scooter flower theman movie 6666
100 please jack oliver success albert

Of course, as an internet addict, I have many passwords to handle, and, still being human, my memory is fallible. So I felt the need to develop an algorithm to generate original passwords that I was able to remember very early in the history of the internet. I will not reveal my secret, but there is also another very interesting algorithm, almost similar to mine, that was published at A Clean Design.

Another possibility is to use a password manager, e.g Keepass, that is free and also runs as a portable application. You only need to remember your master password. Or the more web-based PasswordMaker, that generates strong and different passwords for every account, while you need only to remember your master password, the hash system, password length, and list of legal characters.

The bright side of recycling information in the blogosphere is that it generates new comments that are often more useful than the original post; Boing-boing is rather popular, so there are a lot of people who commented on the post.

First of all someone wrote:

This is the third time I’ve seen a link to this list

Yeah, and mine is probably the fourth – and I’m sure not the last. 🙂

But Batu B had an advice:

the best password generator I’ve heard of is the acronym for a simple phrase, which generates nonsense, but is easy to remember. such as
“this password is nonsense but is easy to remember”
provides the password
“tpinbietr”

or this anonymous comment:

I always liked passwords that use phrases you know by heart but aren’t obvious. Even if they see you type bbroygbvgw they aren’t going to be able to remember it long enough to write it down unless they are old electricians.

Another way to do it: pick some song lyrics, throw in a symbol and another string and you have an amazingly secure password: aobtd^egbdf (Hint, the first one is popular queen lyrics, the second you should know, and may actually be too common to use)

and, almost the same,

As a Microsoft security expert once suggested. The best passwords (when the field allows it) are made of a simple and long phrase. It is easy to remember and impossible to guess.

by classic01.

So, maybe I should review my own algorithm and change my old “letmein” into something more advanced.

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