PoSH-Passwords

This a a simple function, that I will be adding to over time to generate passwords using PowerShell utilising the Windows Pseudo Random Number Generator (PRNG) which is a function from the Windows Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP). This is (more than) 'good enough' for most cases as without a hardware generator probably as good as Windows provides.

It was borne of frustration with a number of devices, platforms and applications not accepting specific characters as input. A number of platforms won't allow:

• Specific Characters only (% $ \ / for instance)
• No numbers as the first character
• No symbols as the first character

This is created as PowerShell function that is simple to use.

Firstly import the function

import-module .\password-functions.psm1

Then call the function New-Password

It will output (by default) a:

• 16 character password
• At least one Upper Case and one Lower Case
• At least one number
• At least one simple symbol eg. *!@#$.-+

An example would be P30ina5vUSfIaA+z

Additional Settings

Need a number of passwords ?

If you need more than one add -count followed by a number

Need a different length of password ?

If you need a different password length add -length followed by a number

Need an easy to read password that's still complex ?

Add the -readable flag. This takes out some of the similar characters such as oO and iI, leaving the numbers.

Need really strong passwords ?

Add the -strong flag. This uses the full alpha, numeric and standard symbol set including the icky characters that some systems don't like.