Generate mixed-case random password in PHP

Question

Here is a list of random passwords:

xFn2zhgH
NqnzZtJQ
3Lh4nBkf
N8zyq4TF
wRzZTxDV
yJhL6CFH
3KdgtRX4
ypgGXdY2
Y9zN7cn2
zcy8LKNp

I need to have some kind of function that will create a password similar to the format of these existing passwords. Any suggestions for how to accomplish this?

Thanks.

$password = substr(str_shuffle("0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"), 0, 20); — TURTLE, Mar 15 '13 at 11:41

jmadsen · Answer 1 · 2013-02-06T03:29:59.400

2

function create_password ($len)
{
  $pool = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
  $str = '';
  for ($i=0; $i < $len; $i++)
  {
    $str .= substr($pool, mt_rand(0, strlen($pool) -1), 1);
  }
  return $str;


}

edited Feb 06 '13 at 03:29

answered Feb 06 '13 at 02:40

jmadsen

3,635
2
33
49

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '13 at 02:43

2

Use a hash with the current date/time

$hash = md5(date('l jS \of F Y h:i:s A'));

Then truncate it to the number of chars you want.

answered Feb 06 '13 at 02:43

Josh Austin

740
3
14

1

The current date time is *not* "random" and thus this solution can be exploited. – Feb 06 '13 at 03:23

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 06 '13 at 02:44

If you need it in PHP, here is a simple code to generate random password:

function randomPassword($length = 8) {
    $password = '';
    $characters = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
    $limit = strlen($characters) - 1;
    for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        $password .= $characters[rand(0, $limit)];
    }
    return $password;
}

Generate mixed-case random password in PHP

3 Answers3