Wicked Cool PHP

#24: Generating Random Passwords

Random (but difficult-to-guess) strings are important in user security. For example, if someone loses a password and you're using MD5 hashes, you won't be able to, nor should you want to, look it up. Instead, you should generate a secure random password and send that to the user. Another application for random number generation is creating activation links in order to access your site's services. Here is a function that creates a password:

<?php function make_password($num_chars) { if ((is_numeric($num_chars)) && ($num_chars > 0) && (! is_null($num_chars))) { $password = ''; $accepted_chars = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890'; // Seed the generator if necessary. srand(((int)((double)microtime()*1000003)) ); ...