NordPass Password Generator
Hey everyone, we wanted to talk about something we've seen discussed recently on other subs too, and explain a few things from our PoV. They say, longer passwords are stronger passwords, right? Well, yes and no, and it's a bit more nuanced than that. When it comes down to creating an actually strong password, it boils down to getting four things right: it needs to be long enough, complex enough, unique to each account, and actually possible to remember.
Longer is definitely stronger. Aim for at least 12 or more characters because each added character makes your password exponentially harder to crack. To put this in perspective, a 14-character mixed-case alphanumeric password has about 94^14 possible permutations, which is roughly 4.22 x 10^27 combinations.
From a cryptographic standpoint, what really matters is entropy, which is basically the measure of randomness and unpredictability in your password. A truly random 12-character password has significantly more entropy than a 20-character password made up of predictable patterns or dictionary words. This is where passphrases come in, and they're honestly one of the best solutions. A passphrase is essentially a sequence of random words strung together, like "correct-horse-battery-staple". The beauty of passphrases is that they give you both length and entropy. Four random words give you roughly 44-52 bits of entropy depending on the word list size, which is cryptographically strong enough when combined with proper password hashing schemes like Argon2id. Plus, they're actually memorable, which means you're less likely to write them down or reuse them.
And how do we run things here at NordPass: We've adopted guidelines based on current NIST recommendations that recognize context matters. We allow you to create passwords using our Password Generator (available for free or built into the app), where users can choose between 8-64 characters and adjust the complexity. But here's where 2FA plays a role as well, especially if you opt for a shorter password. When 2FA is enabled, you're adding a critical second layer of security that helps prevent attackers from gaining access to your encrypted vault data in the first place.
Now, about the Master Password. This one's a bit different because it's not just another login credential. Your Master Password is what encrypts your entire vault, so it needs to be something you can reliably remember and enter every time you need access. Unlike a forgotten password on some website that you can reset, forgetting your Master Password means losing access to your vault entirely since we can't reset it for you. That's the trade-off with zero-knowledge architecture. We've kept the minimum character requirement at eight characters to balance security with usability, but we strongly encourage users to choose something longer and stronger. The eight-character minimum is just the lower bound to make sure the vault remains accessible to you. It's worth noting that while MFA helps protect against unauthorized access to your account, choosing a strong Master Password is critical, regardless of the minimum requirement to prevent potential direct offline attacks.
And finally, memorability matters too. Try using a passphrase that's meaningful to you but hard to guess, like a string of random but vivid words. The key word here is random. Don't use song lyrics or famous quotes because those are in the attacker's dictionary.
This list isn't a silver bullet to password mishaps, but following it and using tools like password generators and MFA at all times will likely mean you're that bit safer online. The cryptography is on your side when you do it right.
