APGD(8)

📦 version 2.3.0b, in epel 10, epel 9, fedora 43, fedora 44

🌸 APGD(8) — the user manual, but make it cute 🌸

okay bestie, welcome to the manual page for apgd, section 8 of the User Manual. pull up a chair, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's get into it.

✨ NAME ✨

apgd — a server that generates several random passwords. yes, several. it's a whole password factory. 👑

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

apgd [-a algorithm] [-M mode] [-E char_string] [-n num_of_pass] [-m
min_pass_len] [-x max_pass_len] [-r dictfile] [-b filter_file] [-p
min_substr_len] [-k] [-t] [-l]

that's the whole vibe check right there. all those flags, all that power. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so apgd is a server that supports the Password Generation Protocol as described in RFC972. it's got several password generation algorithms (currently two, so, a duo ✌️) and a built-in pseudo random number generator.

apgd is normally invoked by the Internet superserver (check inetd(8) for that) for requests to connect to the pwdgen port — and per RFC1700, pwdgen port is 129 — as indicated by the /etc/services file (see services(5) for the deets).

the default algorithm is the pronounceable password generation algorithm, designed by Morrie Gasser and described in "A Random Word Generator For Pronounceable Passwords", National Technical Information Service (NTIS) AD-A-017676. the original paper is, and I quote, very old and had never been put online, so the author had to use the NIST implementation described in FIPS-181. iconic struggle tbh. 😭

another algorithm is the simple random character generation algorithm, except it uses four user-defined symbol sets to produce a random password. meaning: you get to choose what type of symbols show up in your password. the symbol sets are:

  • numeric symbol set (0,...,9)
  • capital letters symbol set (A,...,Z)
  • small letters symbol set (a,...,z)
  • special symbols symbol set (#,@,!,...)

the built-in pseudo random number generator is an implementation of the algorithm described in Appendix C of ANSI X9.17 or RFC1750, with the exception that it uses CAST or SHA-1 instead of Triple DES. it uses local time with precision of microseconds (see gettimeofday(2)) and /dev/random (if available) to produce the initial random seed. that's the entropy starter pack. ✨

apgd also has the ability to check generated password quality using a dictionary. you can use this ability if you specify the command-line option -r dictfile or -b filtername, where dictfile is the dictionary file name and filtername is the name of the Bloom filter file. in that dictionary you may place words (one per line) that should not appear as generated passwords. for example: user names, common words, etc. you can even use one of the dictionaries that come with dictionary password crackers. the Bloom filter file should be created with the apgbfm(1) utility included in the apg distribution. in future releases the author plans to implement some other techniques to check passwords, just to make life easier. (sweet of them fr fr 🫶)

apgd has the ability to log user password generation activity and internal debug information. it does this using

facility = daemon
       priority = info for user password generation activity logging
       priority = debug for internal debug information

see the syslogd(8) and syslog.conf(5) man pages for information on how to configure your syslog daemon.

💖 OPTIONS 💖

🔥 Password generation modes options 🔥

  • -a algorithm — use algorithm for password generation.
    • 0 — (default) pronounceable password generation
    • 1 — random character password generation
  • -n num_of_pass — generate num_of_pass number of passwords. default is 6. six lil guys. a whole squad. 🎀
  • -m min_pass_len — generate password with minimum length min_pass_len. if min_pass_len > max_pass_len then max_pass_len = min_pass_len. default minimum password length is 8.
  • -x max_pass_len — generate password with maximum length max_pass_len. if min_pass_len > max_pass_len then max_pass_len = min_pass_len. default maximum password length is 10.
  • -M mode — use symbolsets specified with mode for password generation. mode is a text string consisting of characters S, s, N, n, C, c, L, l. where:
    • S — generator must use special symbol set for every generated password.
    • s — generator should use special symbol set for password generation.
    • N — generator must use numeral symbol set for every generated password.
    • n — generator should use numeral symbol set for password generation.
    • C — generator must use capital symbol set for every generated password.
    • c — generator should use capital symbol set for password generation.
    • L — generator must use small letters symbol set for every generated password (always present if pronounceable password generation algorithm is used).
    • l — generator should use small letters symbol set for password generation.
    • R,r — not supported any more. use -E char_string option instead.
    • mode can not be more than 4 characters in length.
Note: usage of L, M, N, C will slow down password generation process. (worth it tho 💅)

Examples: -M sncl or -M SNCL or -M Cn

  • -E char_string — exclude characters in char_string from password generation process (in pronounceable password generation mode you can not exclude small letters). to include special symbols that can be recognized by shell (apostrophe, quotes, dollar sign, etc.) in char_string use the backslashed versions.

Examples:

command apgd -a 1 -M n -n 3 -m 8 -e 23456789 will generate a set of passwords that will look like this

10100110
01111000
11011101

command apgd -a 1 -M nc -n 3 -m 26 -e GHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ will generate a set of passwords that will look like this

16A1653CD4DE5E7BD9584A3476
C8F78E06944AFD57FB9CB882BC
8C8DF37CD792D36D056BBD5002

🌈 Password quality control options 🌈

  • -k — check every generated password using cracklib. to use this ability you must enable cracklib support during programm building.
  • -r dictfile — check generated passwords for their appearance in dictfile.
  • -b filter_file — check generated passwords for their appearance in filter_file. filter_file should be created with apgbfm(1) utility.
  • -p min_substr_len — this option tells apg(1) to check every substring of the generated password for appearance in filter_file. if any of such substrings would be found in the filter_file then generated password would be rejected and apg(1) will generate another one. min_substr_len is specifies minimum substring length to check. this option is active only if -b option is defined.

🎀 Password output options 🎀

  • -l — spell genetated passwords. useful when you want to read generated password by telephone.
WARNING: think twice before read your password by phone. 😭 seriously. bestie. think twice.
  • -t — print pronunciation for generated pronounceable password.

⭐ DEFAULT OPTIONS ⭐

apgd -a 0 -M sncl -n 6 -x 10 -m 8 (new style)

that's the no-args starter pack, the default fit. 👑

💀 EXIT CODE 💀

on successful completion of its task, apgd will complete with exit code 0. an exit code of -1 indicates an error occurred. textual errors are written to the syslogd(8).

🧚 DIAGNOSTICS 🧚

all textual info is written to the syslogd(8). that's the whole thing. everything goes to syslog. periodt.

🙈 FILES 🙈

None. (yes, literally none. nothing. empty. the void. 🌌)

💜 BUGS 💜

None. if you've found one, please send bug description to the author. (not me though, I'm just the narrator 💅)

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

apg(1), apgbfm(1)

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Adel I. Mirzazhanov, <a-del@iname.com>

Project home page: http://www.adel.nursat.kz/apg/

and that's the whole page, bestie! this one's from the Automated Password Generator, dated 2003 Aug 4 — yeah it's an elder, but it still ate. 🫶 go generate something unguessable, and don't read it out loud on the phone. mwah. 💖

📦 where this page comes from