How to create a strong password to increase the security level of your CentOS system

How to create a strong password to increase the security level of CentOS system

As network security risks continue to increase, ensuring the security of system passwords has become particularly important. CentOS is one of the widely used operating systems, therefore, creating a strong password on the CentOS system can effectively improve the security level of the system. This article explains how to create strong passwords and provides code examples to help you strengthen the security of your CentOS system.

1. Follow password complexity rules

To create a strong password, you first need to follow password complexity rules. These rules typically include the following requirements:

• Password length must be at least 8 characters
• Use a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters
• Avoid Phrases, common words and personal information
• Change passwords regularly

To follow the above rules, we can use a password generator to create random, complex passwords.

2. Use Password Generator

Password generator is a tool that can help us create strong passwords. On CentOS systems, we can use the pwgen command to generate passwords. Here is an example:

$ pwgen -s 12

This command will generate a random password of 12 characters. The number 12 can be changed as needed to generate passwords of different lengths.

3. Use Password Management Tools

Password management tools are a convenient way to manage and protect your passwords. They help you generate strong passwords and store them in an encrypted database. Some common password management tools include LastPass and KeePass.

On CentOS systems, we can use Pass to manage passwords. Pass is a command-line based password management tool that uses GPG to encrypt the password database. Here is an example:

First, install Pass:

$ sudo yum install pass

Then, create a password vault:

$ pass init <GPGID>

where 6c43ed61f7157191ff8ed68f539d0094 is your GPG key identification symbol.

Finally, add a password:

$ pass insert <name>

where 8a11bc632ea32a57b3e3693c7987c420 is the name of the password you want to add.

4. Avoid using common words in passwords

To prevent malicious attackers from using common words for brute force cracking, we should avoid using common words in passwords. You can use a dictionary file to check whether passwords contain common words. Here is an example:

$ cat /usr/share/dict/words | grep -i <password>

where cb1ebc435675187bdcfb539b370c2e37 is the password you want to check.

If the check results return matching words, it indicates that the password is not secure enough and we should regenerate a stronger password.

Summary

By following password complexity rules, using password generators, password management tools, and avoiding the use of common words in passwords, we can create strong passwords to increase the security level of our CentOS system. At the same time, we should also change passwords regularly to further strengthen the security of the system. Through these measures, we can protect the security of our systems and data by reducing the likelihood of malicious attackers cracking passwords.

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