in case you need a quick way to generate a password length 8
openssl rand -base64 8
I usually use pwgen (old ref article):
sudo apt install pwgen
sudo dnf install pwgen
sudo pacman -S pwgen
Edit: Found project page: Password generator CLI
7 Likes
nice. I made an alias, alias p='openssh rand -base64 8' when I type p, I get a random 8 char pw, quick n dirty. There are plenty of one-liners. It’s good to share with the group.
5 Likes
Old discussion featuring some cli tools and approaches is here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/976808/password-generator-combining-actual-words Hopefully, you find it interesting.
5 Likes
Hi, everyone 
I guess that another way to generate (somewhat “random”) passwords is to use the uuidgen command that generates an UUID (“Universally Unique Identifier”) and that I think comes pre-installed in most Linux distributions:
$ uuidgen
11508465-9363-4ee1-b6d8-1091aa963a3a
$ uuidgen
32839d19-bd14-4aa1-8124-c0d56d9ee1ee
$ uuidgen
06a57e39-8e0a-4af9-a0ba-e4159df14871
Granted, this is NOT completely random, since it follows a specific format, namely that it is a string of 32 hexadecimal characters (comprised of only lowercase ASCII letters, digits and hyphens) and that has a specific “grouping” of characters. You may find a more detailed description and explanation of the UUID format and the uuidgen command, for instance, in the following article:
4 Likes
I tend to use passphrases for anything important. That way I can remember them. I don’t store passwords, except on an encrypted USB drive.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/what-is-passphrase/
Passphrase examples
When creating your password, consider capitalizing random letters within the phrase and replacing letters with symbols. For example, “@” for “a.”
ILoveiCeCre@msoMuch!
Jack&JillWentUptheHill
Mich@elJ@cksonIstheGr8testofAllTime
I do something like: MydAwdgcostmebig$whenheate8oysters! (not a real passphrase)
Bitwarden password Checker:
Your password strength strong
Estimated time to crack : centuries
security org password checker:
It would take a computer about
1 trestrigintillion years
to crack your password
5 Likes
Great! Thank you for highlighting the fact that ‘universally unique’ is not necessarily ‘random’. But let me to mention that version 4 of formal UUID specification dictates 122 random bits within UUID format. Next to it, AFAIK, hexadecimal representation of UUIDs with hyphens is a legacy of version 1 fields structure and does not always reflects UUID actual format.
5 Likes
Wow! I did not know that ! Good info ! 
3 Likes
How about “Standard” Linux Way: you can pull bits directly from the kernel’s random number generator and filter them:
tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 8; echo
5 Likes
I consider your solution as the 100% UNIX-spirited construct … very elegant
4 Likes