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I need to create passwords on the fly from a script.

Unfortunately I cannot use applications that utilize /dev/urandom because of the time it takes to create the password.

Are there other applications that I can use to create passwords on the fly?

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They all use /dev/urandom. Unless they use /dev/random, which is even slower. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Apr 18 '11 at 22:43
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You can't both have your cake and eat it. If you don't need the passwords to be random, use swordfish everywhere. If you do need the passwords to be random, /dev/urandom is as fast as it gets (unlike /dev/random which may block). – Gilles Apr 18 '11 at 23:12
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How many passwords do you need in so short of a time that /dev/urandom is too slow? – Puddingfox Apr 18 '11 at 23:17
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cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'a-zA-Z0-9-_!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:<>?=' | fold -w 12 | head -n 4 takes about .01 seconds... If you need something faster, you will probably need to write your own program. – Hyppy Apr 19 '11 at 1:15
More thought... perhaps your /dev/urandom is using /dev/random for some reason? Try cat /dev/urandom. If it's REALLY slow, and pauses when you don't move the mouse for a while, it's probably using /dev/random for some reason – Hyppy Apr 19 '11 at 3:28
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5 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Apparently this answer worked:

cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'a-zA-Z0-9-_!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:<>?=' | fold -w 12 | head -n 4

... takes about .01 seconds.

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up vote 4 down vote

The apg tool is kinda dated but still good for password generation. It supports sizing the passwords, password checking with dictionaries, generation of pronounceable or random passwords, has a built-in PRNG and /dev/random support and can generate various passwords on a bunch or on a shell script.

Examples:

# apg -c random_seed 
dordififId
riHegyipju
Noafrathvu
IchJinCet
utadwulb
ethFench

Generate only one with no delimiter:

# apg -c random_seed -n 1 -d
AkKijNayn

Spell the generated passwords:

# apg -c random_seed -n 1 -d
aicWajbyRorp42863:~# apg -c random_seed -l
FrogQuev Foxtrot-romeo-oscar-golf-Quebec-uniform-echo-victor
cecNeiv1 charlie-echo-charlie-November-echo-india-victor-ONE
SkudVolt Sierra-kilo-uniform-delta-Victor-oscar-lima-tango
TowUlripab Tango-oscar-whiskey-Uniform-lima-romeo-india-papa-alfa-bravo
Bytquigpey Bravo-yankee-tango-quebec-uniform-india-golf-papa-echo-yankee
Doithneb Delta-oscar-india-tango-hotel-november-echo-bravo
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up vote 1 down vote

You may try 'pwgen' (available in Ubuntu/Debian/Gentoo etc.)

Generate a 10 char password:

pwgen 10

Generate a more secure 10 char password:

pwgen -s 10

Generate a 'really' secure 10 char password:

pwgen -sy 10

Hope this helps, Cheers

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pwgen uses /dev/urandom as well – James Apr 19 '11 at 1:51
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up vote 0 down vote 
mkpasswd -l 10
# will make a randon password with 10 chars - you may need to install it ...
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mkpasswd uses /dev/urandom. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Apr 18 '11 at 22:49
then make your own random ... like reading the clock then search some files ... sorry can't think of a faster way - one problem that you may have into the system is that you don't have enough entropy – silviud Apr 18 '11 at 22:51
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up vote 0 down vote

The following generates a unique 8 lower and upper character password: openssl rand -base64 6

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