Unpopular opinion: those password strength meters on websites are totally lying to you

I tested my "strong" password on a public checker last night and it cracked in under 2 seconds because it was just a common word with a number at the end, so why do we keep trusting those green bars?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jason3d ago

Dude, those green bars are the biggest scam going (right up there with "free shipping" that's baked into the price). I had the same wake-up call last month when I tried my supposedly "strong" password - it was just "Summer2023!" - and it got guessed in like three tries on a hash-cracking site. The bars just check for length and a symbol, they don't tell you that "Password1!" is still garbage. They make you feel safe so you don't go get a real password manager, which is basically the whole game.

morgan_jenkins902d ago

Dude, that same thing happened to me with "DogsRule2022!" - I thought I was being so clever with the exclamation point and everything. I ran it through a cracking site on a dare from a friend and it popped up in less than a second because "Dogs" is apparently in some common word list they use. My brother still uses "Football1" for everything and won't listen when I tell him it's basically the same as having no password at all. The green bar on his bank's site even gave him a full green bar for that garbage. It's just there to make you feel good while you keep using your dog's name plus a number.