Cool Site Of The Moment: Password Meter

by Rich Menga on Jun 28, 2011 | 6 comments

How strong is your password? Do you even know? Well, now you can with Password Meter. It requires no software install as it’s just a web site. It also (and this is important) doesn’t require you to submit anything. Simply start typing and the web site will instantly update on you how strong or weak the password you enter actually is.

Using the password "test", here’s what shows up:

Using the password "X5rUCHesnt-2NJbv":

Give it a try, it’s totally free and the scoring system appears to be accurate.

Here’s where to go: http://askthegeek.us/pwd_meter/index.htm

Like what you read?

If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below:

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

Post A Comment Using Facebook

mmseng1
Uhm… Just because you don’t click a button conspicuously labeled “Submit” doesn’t mean it can’t send any data you’ve entered to the site. The page can easily be coded with AJAX, or even just plain old Javascript to submit data on any keypress.
That said, a password isn’t a whole lot of good without a username and a service to associate it with. But still, if you want to find out the actual strength of your real password, it’d always be best to simply submit a password that’s identical in length and position of character types, but uses different characters.
Example:
If you want to find the strength of the password: P0k!tK*if3+
simply submit something like this instead: O9j~rJ&ud2_
You’ll notice that all I did was shift all the characters over one spot on the keyboard.
Also, there’s good non-web apps out there which calculate strength for you as well, such as KeyPass (highly recommended).

Rich
“…a password isn’t a whole lot of good without a username and a service to associate it with.”
That’s why it’s called the password meter and not the username meter, and why it’s safe to test a password there since you’re not entering your username to begin with.

mmseng1
That’s why I qualified with that statement. Still, speaking from a tinfoil-hat-wearing, devil’s advocate stance, it’s still entirely possible that someone is collecting passwords without usernames to be subsequently applied to a list of usernames. A list of real passwords and an unrelated list of real usernames is still more valuable than just a list of usernames. It could be used to augment a dictionary brute force attack.
*Takes off tinfoil hat*

Rich
You were wearing a tin foil hat way before you made that comment.

richtea
But he does have a point, regardless of headwear. I believe Bruce Schneier has repeatedly addressed the issue of passwords, etc., quite comprehensively. It is a tricky subject.

hidden
if the password is saved, you’re IP is as well. A simple packet sniffer and a facebook (for example) site running on http and not https can get that username, e-mail, and then everything. so, just think about it.