Password Templates and the Generator¶
You never have to think up a password. Private Passwords makes one for you, at random, by the rules of a password template: how long it is, and which characters it may use. One password template is the default, and every new password is made by it unless another is chosen.
The Password Templates page¶
Open the Info tab and, under Metadata Configuration, tap Password Templates.
Open the Info page and, under Metadata Configuration, click Password Templates. The menu lists it under the same heading.
Every password template is listed by name, A–Z or Z–A, with what it makes, such as 22 characters: a–z, A–Z, 0–9, symbols, and how strong those passwords are. The default carries a star. New Template starts one of your own, beginning with the default's rules.
[Screenshot: the Password Templates page with Default starred]
What a password template sets¶
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | Up to 30 characters. Two password templates can't have the same name. |
| Notes | What it is for, up to 200 characters, such as the site whose length limit it suits. |
| Characters in a password | The length, from 6 to 256. |
| Lowercase letters, Capital letters, Digits, Symbols | Each switched on or off. For each one on, At least sets how many every password has at the least. |
| Drawn from | The symbols it may use, two or more, where Symbols is on. |
| Leave out look-alikes | Leaves out characters easily taken for one another: 0 O 1 l I | |
| Lock the rules | Where it is used, its length and characters can't be changed. |
| Lock the password | A password it makes can't be edited by hand. Another can always be made. |
If the rules can't make a password, for example when the At least numbers add up to more than the length, the page says why. Under Strength you see how strong its passwords are, and a sample of one, which is not kept.
[Screenshot: a password template's page with Length, Characters and Strength]
Why 22 characters?
The i beside Length explains it. Length is what makes a password hard to guess: each character you add multiplies the guesses needed by about 80. Twenty-two random characters would take centuries to crack, even with the cracking hardware of the future. You never type a generated password, so the length costs you nothing. If a site caps the length, make a password template for that site with its maximum.
The built-in password templates¶
Each uses lowercase letters, capital letters, digits and symbols, unless the table says otherwise.
| Password template | What it makes | Locks |
|---|---|---|
| Default | 22 characters, at least 2 of each | None |
| Text and Numbers | 24 characters, at least 4 each of lowercase letters, capital letters and digits, and no symbols | Lock the password |
| Dashes and dots only | 24 characters, at least 2 of each, and the only symbols are the dash and the dot | Lock the password |
| Readable | 24 characters, at least 2 of each, look-alikes left out, and fewer symbols to draw from | None |
| Complex-40 | 40 characters, at least 3 of each | Lock the rules and Lock the password |
A built-in password template's rules and locks are the app's, and it can't be deleted. Its name and notes are yours to change, and you can make it the default. To have rules of your own, choose Copy, which makes a new password template of your own with the same rules and locks.
- Hide it: turn off the switch at the top of its page. It is kept, and offered nowhere until you turn the switch on again. The default can't be hidden: make another the default first.
- Restore Original…: once you have changed its name or notes, this puts them back as the app has them.
The default password template¶
The default carries a star, and is Default to begin with. To make another the default, open it and choose Make Default, then Save. Until you save, Undo takes it back. There is one default at a time.
The default makes the password of every new item, unless the item's template names another password template (see Item Templates) or you choose another as you make it.
Deleting a password template of your own¶
Open it and choose Delete Template…, then Delete Template. Passwords already made keep the rules they were made by. If it was the default, Default becomes the default again; item templates that named it go back to the default too. Its page lists any item templates that name it, before you decide.
Making a password as you add an item¶
When you make a new item whose template has a Password field, a password is already made for it, hidden until you show it with the eye. An identity is the exception: its password field starts empty.
- Generate makes another.
- You can show it large, in big characters, to read it or to type it somewhere that takes no paste.
- Under Password Template, choose another password template for this item. Below it, change the Length and Characters for this one password: each change makes a new password. Where the template locks its rules, they are shown and can't be moved.
- If you choose another, the editor offers the way back to the item template's own.
If the password template locks its passwords, the password can't be typed over, but Generate still makes another.
For an item you already have, Generate makes a new password by the template its present one was made by, or by the default if you typed it or it came with an import. Change Password, the pencil beside the password on the item's screen, shows the password the item has now, to copy into the site's form, above the new one and the same choices. It isn't offered where the password's template locks its passwords.
The generator¶
The generator makes a password that isn't kept anywhere: for a form, another device, or someone else.
Tap the generator's button at the top of the page, beside +, or choose Generate Password from the menu.
Click the die in the panel's top row, or choose Generate Password from the menu.
It opens with a password made by the default template. Choose another Template, or move the Length and Characters where the template allows, and another is made. Regenerate makes another by the same rules, it can be shown large, and Copy puts it on the clipboard for the time set in Settings. You can change it by hand unless its template locks its passwords; a password changed by hand isn't rated.
Nothing in the generator is kept. Copy the password to use it, then Close.
[Screenshot: the generator with a password shown and its rating]
How strength is shown¶
Private Passwords rates a password by the worst case: a site you use is breached, and criminals feed the stolen passwords to cracking rigs that try a trillion guesses a second. The rating says how long a password would last against that.
| Rating | It would be cracked in |
|---|---|
| Dangerous | under a week |
| Weak | under 3 months |
| OK | under 3 years |
| Strong | 3 years or more |
Next to the rating is the time itself, such as Strong — would take centuries or Weak — cracked in about 2 months. The i beside it explains the worst case.
- A password template, and a password it makes, are rated by how many different passwords the rules can make. This assumes the attacker even knows the rules, the length and which characters are used, and tries only passwords that fit them. A template whose passwords are Dangerous or Weak can still be saved, but its page says so.
- A password you typed, or one that came with an import, is rated by how a cracker would guess it: names, words, dates and keyboard patterns fall first, symbols or not. A well-known password is also marked Common password.
The rating shows as you type in the editor, and again on the item's screen. While Credential Health is on, they also say how many other items use the same password, since a breach of one exposes them all.
If a template's At least numbers are hard to meet by chance, the app warns you that its passwords are often repaired to fit them, which makes them somewhat easier to guess than the rating says. Lower a minimum to avoid it.
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