Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Password security tracking for secure textboxes all round

The secure password textfields in the various GUI toolkits should be upgraded, so that they have a security rating next to them, or a way of accessing their security rating. "AAAA" is obviously a lame pass, which would get a lame rating, while "h^4Fjh7fd:'8^gS``Z'" is obviously something which would rate highly. WEP/WPA passes would follow different criteria, as they need to be a lot longer to be secure


There should also be a way of easily automatically generating secure passwords too as Apple does. Apple places a picture of a key next to password textfields (in inconsistant locations) that when clicked, brings up a password creation dialog. It allows you to create a password randomly, depending on preferred length, if you want it to be memorable (ie. "2frog67Beer,"), if you want it to be alphanumeric, etc. New users still believe that a password like chicken is secure because its 6 chars, when in reality, its an easy dictionary crack, lets make it obvious that its not.

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