How Long Would It Take to Crack Your Password?
The strength of a randomly generated password is one number — its entropy , in bits — and it comes from a single line of arithmetic. I computed it across every length and character-set choice using the exact character sets our password generator ships, then turned each into a crack time. One thing comes out very clearly: eight characters is no longer enough , and length matters far more than…
A randomly generated password's strength is measured by its entropy, which is calculated using a simple mathematical formula: length multiplied by the base-2 logarithm of the pool size. The pool consists of the number of possible characters that can occupy each position in the password. With all four character types (lowercase, uppercase, digits, and symbols), the generator draws from a pool of 88 characters.
Each extra bit of entropy doubles the number of guesses an attacker must make, making this single number the deciding factor. The time required to crack a password depends on the guessing rate, which is represented by an offline scenario where a GPU rig can perform about 1 trillion guesses per second against a fast or unsalted hash – the worst possible realistic scenario for a breached site's password database.
The data shows that an 8-character password takes less than a coffee break for an attacker, while a 12-character password requires thousands of years, and a 16-character password takes over 3,400 years. The crucial point is that length matters more than adding symbols. While adding a character multiplies the difficulty at every position, turning on symbols only multiplies the pool once.
A 16-character lowercase-only password has a significantly higher entropy (75.2 bits) than an 8-character password using all four types (51.7 bits). In conclusion, if you must choose between length and complexity, prioritize length and add symbols only for extra security, as random password generators ensure the required entropy.
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