Simple password generators

We all need passwords all the time… Yet, according to recent studies, between 30% and 60% of people use the same password for all their accounts! See [1] [2] and more…

For those of us that do need (or better yet, do want) a good password, unique to each application – system account, encrypted partition, ssh pubkeys, server administration, etc. etc. – we need a good generator; don’t forget that simple random typing also decreases entropy!

Here are 2 simple password generators I use (easy to carry around on your flash); both of them use what is readily available on most *nix systems.
Feel free to post your favourite one in comment, so that we all can learn and prosper!

HowTo: ssh access using public key(s)

ssh is an extremely useful tool to work remotely and securely on *nix systems.
But the usual password protected access strategy is not the safest way to go; anyone can try to guess your password, use a keylogger attack, etc.

One (big) safety step above is the pubkey (identity) authentication. This uses a pair key-passphrase for remote access.

You can make your system way safer with just 3 simple steps.

Tiny GNU screen reference

Mainly for my reference, here’s a small list of most useful key short-cuts for the GNU screen – GNU version of BSD’s tmux terminal multiplexer.

The main purpose of GNU screen is to allow you to run several terminals “in one”, without the need to log into remote (or local, if needed) system.
This is done by spawning virtual terminals (screens or windows) inside the terminal.
Another, maybe even more useful feature of screen is, that it is persistent. You can easily detach from the session, and log out of the remote server, while any programs you left running in the screen session will stay alive, in a similar way they would with nohup, while having the interactiveness of terminal still available. Afterwards, you can resume previous session once you log back in.