Passgen tool from my book
Way back in 2005, Jesper Johannson and I wrote Protect Your Windows Network. It’s still available, and although its product set is now somewhat dated (Windows XP and Server 2003), much of the practical advice about security policies, social engineering, security dependencies, and how to think about security remains relevant. That’s because we strove to write something more lasting than a simple configuration guide.
On the CD-ROM accompanying the book we included a tool called Passgen. In the book, we recommended that you maintain separate passwords on every local administrator and service account in your enterprise. This is, of course, almost impossible to manage without something to automate it for you. That’s what Passgen does. The tool generates unique passwords based on known input (an identifier and passphrase you define), sets those passwords remotely, and allows you to retrieve them later.
For a while Jesper maintained a web site for the book, running on a server in his house. His ISP changed policies and made it impractical to continue running the site. But because the tool is still so useful, I’ve put a copy in my SkyDrive—look in the “Passgen” folder.
Also, note that I’ve put a new section in the right-side column, “Resources for you.” Here’s where I’ll keep links to bits and pieces that many of you will find relevant and interesting.
Update. A few readers have informed me that the SHA-1 hash printed in the README.DOC doesn’t match the actual hash of passgen.exe. Jesper made a few changes and recompiled the tool. The correct hash is now:
fa19722348e9e0603f24c0ef9fc715010403bcfa
I’ve updated the README file with the new hash. Also, passgen.exe has a digital signature, and you can check its details if you’d like.
