Ask Lemmy

Until password managers became a thing, I just used 1 password for everything and it was just a serial number for a specific model of floppy disk.

In the couple places where I don't use a password manager, I make up a silly sentence and use the first letter of each word and then mix in numbers and symbols. I guess that means the letters I use end up not being evenly distributed, but I think it'll be alright.

Let's just say the book known as A Pickle for the Knowing Ones is surprisingly useful as a book cipher book if the book cipher is designated to construct passwords.

I'll do as long a sentence as I can easily remember. Something silly, a memorable movie quote, an explanation of what the profile/app is for, a reminder for why I use the profile/app, goal I have in the area of life I need to use the app for.

Since most password fields require special characters, I'll slap an exclamation point or question mark at the end to complete the sentence. Sometimes I'll think to use a sentence that already has a number and type the digit instead of spelling it out. Or I'll just use a 2 for too or to.

Not-real example based on a not-real goal

idriveaHummer2workinthefuture!

Password manager. For things that I forsee I will end up needing to type often, I might choose a passphrase made of actual words. Some password managers can do this, or create passwords made of syllables you can pronounce. It's way easier to type correctly.

When I'm without a manager, I just look around for random objects, especially things with numbers and special characters.

I only need a couple “real” passwords. They are long, complex, and backed by 2fa

Historically I re-used things from personal history. I know I shouldn’t but they’re easier to remember since I already memorized them. Usually they’re not public data, more like

• my first PIN of my first ever bank card is now additional authentication for my app with my current bank
• one password is the name and IP (with substitutions) of one of my favorite servers from a job 15 years ago when I ran my own lab
• I gotta admit, I still have some trivial passwords for things that seem trivial

But my passwords are mostly generated (and the password to that is complex and unique, plus requires additional Auth). Anything from the last couple years also has a unique generated email

My company is pretty serious about such things: I have generated passwords, two separate 2fa apps and a yubikey. Plus they have some annoying shit on the laptop that is sometimes annoying

I use a password manager, and for that I take an uncommon saying, transcribe the first letter of each word in a leet-like code with a couple of modifications. This gives you a very long and secure password.