362
This seems like one picked up data packet away from being a bad idea. Am I overthinking this?
This is probably fine. The connection to DDG will be over HTTPS, so a captured packet would need to be decoded first. And if someone were to manage to break the encryption, then they would also need to know what service you used the password for.
Ultimately, it's more secure to generate locally, but it would be a huge amount of work to get anything usable out of a packet capture
Are they sending data? I'm pretty sure this will just be generated on the client.
Yeah, I tested it. It's not a client side thing, it is part of the search page output.
oof
load more comments
(1 replies)
I'm no cybersecurity expert. But couldn't they just sniff your traffic to see where you (your packets) go and test the pw on each login for the last hour?
edit: I guess they are using DuckDuckGo, which has a higher level of privacy design and limits.
You are not overthinking it. Exploiting this would be a bit more complex than capturing a packet on the wire, but it is possible.
If you intend to use a passphrase for anything important, it's best to generate it locally.
load more comments
(1 replies)
With https as protocol, picked up data packets won't do much harm.
But relying on anything but a local password manager is imho still a bad idea.
Yeah I think I'll just click an icon in my password manager instead.
There are certainly better ideas.
This is probably ok. First of all, they're probably actually doing it in Javascript in the browser. It probably never travels over the network at all. And, if it did, with HTTPS it would be hard to intercept and decrypt except by a government or something.
But, it still gives me the willies to generate a password on a web page. Fundamentally a web browser is still a tool for sending and receiving data over the Internet, and that's not the kind of tool I'd want to be generating something that I don't want other people to know or see.
What happens if there's a bug? If the password is being generated in an app on my local system a badly designed app with a bug could maybe log my newly generated password in a local log file somewhere. If there's a bug in DuckDuckGo's javascript, who knows where that newly generated password might be logged?
If you're going to auto generate passwords, just use BitWarden.
I use KeePass. It's just a local file (which you can sync/host how you see fit if you need to). I don't understand why people choose to use password managers hosted by other people. You almost certainly don't need that, and it introduces issues and vulnerabilities with little upside.
That's fucked up, they should not do that. Even if they do it in a way that users are actually secure (maybe generating the password in the browser, nothing serverside?), it isn't good to train people to trust a website for this.
I like the little tools like this that DuckDuckGo has. A couple others:
- "color picker"
- "base64 encode your_text_here" (and "base64 decode encoded_string_here" as well)
- "json formatter"
my favorite is "qr code" best and easiest qr code generator
Whoa, that one is great.
I like this as most qr generator websites make a link shortener kind of thing and put ads before my content.
Yeah I used it to convert my totp token to qr code. Works great
load more comments
(1 replies)
Uuid
Oh cool, I didn't know about that one.
load more comments
(5 replies)
hunter2
All I see is *******.
correct horse battery staple
I would definitely use those passwords! /s
Right! How good is the entropy?...
Your password manager does this too!
$ Openssl rand 16 | base64
today I learned. Thanks :)
Ok but you should use passphrases. Better to type and remember in case you need to
There are instances where sites prevent copy-paste, or you are on another machine without your password manager available
If you have a password vault, use the vault first.
For rotating PC login credentials, I use codified passphrases. They typically meet security needs, are unique and nearly unguessable because it could be ANYTHING in your office, and don't contain dictionary words. Example:
Annual evaluations are due before summer. Be sure to mention the Grodsky project! aeadB4S.Bs2mtGp.
Where did Julie's candy go? I ate it! She'll never know >:D
WdJcg?I8i!Snn>:D
Even if I had a perfectly secure connection, I'm still getting a password from a service that could be tracking me.
load more comments
(5 replies)
That's great if you only have a couple of online accounts, but get past a few dozen and you're toast. I don't know about you, but I sure can't remember 50+ unique pass phrases. However, I can remember the one for my password manager, which has 30+ random character passwords for all my accounts.
Passphrases are easier when you need to enter the password on a system that isn't logged into your vault, even if they are longer. I usually default to 3 word passphrase + random number at the end of a word + random special character in the middle of a word.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Pass phrases for things that need to be human readable/rememberable.
Generated strings for everything else.
Because a pass phrase is inherently vulnerable to a dictionary attack because... it is words. You can obfuscate that but all the ways that would actually not compromise the readability are also pretty well known (whether that is "a=@" or "every 'e' is a 'b'" and so forth.
Is a 96 character pass phrase meaningfully more vulnerable than a 16 character generated string? That gets into the realm of hypotheticals and "one day we'll have quantum computers" but you are generally looking at a situation where everything is fucked anyway or there is a very targeted attack on you... at which point "hmm. 96 characters? Must be a pass phrase". So... not the venue to discuss.
But, at that point... if you are using a password manager/vault anyway...
Also the reality is that anyone who has ever dealt with a bank or some other "legacy" website rapidly learns that there are max lengths for passwords because they are more afraid of allocating a few extra megabytes for the SQL database than anything else. At which point your pass phrase goes out the window and you are back to "p@$$w0rd" level bullshit (or, better yet, you have a mental model/style of password).
load more comments
(1 replies)
typing passwords
That isn't great from a security perspective
Or just use a locally hosted password generator for one that isn't handfed to you by a for-profit company...
$ pwgen -s -1 32
Short password please.
-"Penis"
Long password please
YourPen!sInMyHand
It can also generate UUIDs. Very useful.
Why not local
Like just generate an md5 hash, truncate it to whatever arbitrary number the shitty website decided is their password length limit, then store it in an encrypted db
Of course this is just a long way of reinventing keepass/1password/bitwarden/icloud keychain/etc
If you’re already generating an md5 and truncating it (an md5 of what?), you might as well use pwgen.
I haven't in a while, but back when I generated passwords for users, I would use the openssl command.
An md5 of whatever string pops in your head at that moment. True randomness is a persons nonsequitors
This makes sense. I had no idea what tools existed because as mentioned many db solutions exist for this
pass --generate -c
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
362 points (100.0% liked)
Today I Learned
25481 readers
567 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS