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Security Focus: Generate an Alphanumeric Password

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If you have to have a password, it's best to have a password that could contain special characters... but, what if you want to generate a password without special characters?

Here's a little function to do just that:

 

 
function New-AlphaNumericPassword {

    ##14 characters
    ##no special characters

    ##ASCII
    #48 -> 57 :: 0 -> 9
    #65 -> 90 :: A -> Z
    #97 -> 122 :: a -> z

    $c = $null

    for ($i = 1; $i -lt 15; $i++) {

        $a = Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 4 

        switch ($a) {

            1 {$b = Get-Random -Minimum 48 -Maximum 58}

            2 {$b = Get-Random -Minimum 65 -Maximum 91}

            3 {$b = Get-Random -Minimum 97 -Maximum 123}

        }

        [string]$c += [char]$b

    }


    $c

}

 

At Microsoft, we don't use passwords anymore. We use Windows Hello for Business on PCs and mobile devices - it replaces passwords with strong two-factor authentication, which is tied to the device and utilises a biometric or PIN.

In my personal life, I enable two-factor authentication on everything I can. It's initially inconvenient, but, once you get used to it, the security it affords is reassuring. You can make you life much easier with apps like the Microsoft Authenticator.