How to Use a Password Generator Safely
Password generators produce strong passwords, but misuse causes lockouts and account compromises. Here is the safe method I use. Password generators are one of the most useful online tools and one of the easiest to misuse. A generated password is strong, but if it is too long for the site, contains disallowed characters, or never gets saved in your password manager, you end up locked out of your own account. Worse, if you generate a password in a tool that sends it to a server, the strong password is compromised before you even use it. Here is the method I use to get the benefits without the pitfalls. Use a Tool That Runs Locally The first safety concern is where the password is generated. A password that travels over the network to a server is not private, no matter how random it is. I only use password generators that run entirely in the browser, with no network requests. All tools on this site run locally, which means the password is generated on your device and never leaves it. This matters even for a throwaway password. Once a password has crossed the network, you cannot unsend it. More tutorials are on the KitCraft Blog.