Package: diceware
dicewarePassphrases to remember…|documentation|sources|issuesdicewareis a passphrase generator following the proposals of
Arnold G. Reinhold onhttp://diceware.com. It generates passphrases
by concatenating words randomly picked from wordlists. For instance:$ diceware
MyraPend93rdSixthEagleAidThe passphrase contains by default six words (with first char
capitalized) without any separator chars. Optionally you can letdicewareinsert special chars into the passphrase.dicewaresupports several sources of randomness (including real life
dice) and different wordlists (including cryptographically signed
ones).ContentsdicewareInstallUsageWhat is it good for?Is it secure?Security TrapsPrefix CodeReduced EntropyDeveloper InstallDocumentation InstallCreating the Man PageCreditsLinksLicenseChanges0.10 (2022-02-15)0.9.6 (2018-12-19)0.9.5 (2018-04-07)0.9.4 (2018-02-27)0.9.3 (2017-09-14)0.9.2 (2017-09-14)0.9.1 (2016-12-24)0.9 (2016-09-14)0.8 (2016-05-07)0.7.1 (2016-04-21)0.7 (2016-04-17)0.6.1 (2015-12-15)0.6 (2015-12-15)0.5 (2015-08-05)0.4 (2015-03-30)0.3.1 (2015-03-29)0.3 (2015-03-28)0.2 (2015-03-27)0.1 (2015-02-18)InstallThis Python package can be installed viapip:$ pip install dicewareThe exact way depends on your operating system.UsageOnce installed, use--helpto list all available options:$ diceware --help
usage: diceware [-h] [-n NUM] [-c | --no-caps] [-s NUM] [-d DELIMITER]
                [-r SOURCE] [-w [NAME [NAME ...]]] [--dice-sides N] [-v]
                [--version]
                [INFILE]

Create a passphrase

positional arguments:
  INFILE                Input wordlist. `-' will read from stdin.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -n NUM, --num NUM     number of words to concatenate. Default: 6
  -c, --caps            Capitalize words. This is the default.
  --no-caps             Turn off capitalization.
  -s NUM, --specials NUM
                        Insert NUM special chars into generated word.
  -d DELIMITER, --delimiter DELIMITER
                        Separate words by DELIMITER. Empty string by default.
  -r SOURCE, --randomsource SOURCE
                        Get randomness from this source. Possible values:
                        `realdice', `system'. Default: system
  -w [NAME [NAME ...]], --wordlist [NAME [NAME ...]]
                        Use words from this wordlist. Possible values: `de',
                        `de_8k', `en_adjectives', `en_eff', `en_nouns',
                        `en_securedrop', `pt-br'.
                        Wordlists are stored in the folder displayed below.
                        Default: en_eff
  -v, --verbose         Be verbose. Use several times for increased verbosity.
  --version             output version information and exit.

Arguments related to `realdice' randomsource:
  --dice-sides N        Number of sides of dice. Default: 6

Wordlists are stored in <WORDLISTS-DIR>With-nyou can tell how many words are supposed to be picked for
your new passphrase:$ diceware -n 1
Thud

$ diceware -n 2
KnitMargoYou candicewareadditionally let generate special chars to replace
characters in the ‘normal’ passphrase.  The number of special chars
generated can be determined with the-soption (default is zero):$ diceware -s 2
Heroic%unkLon#DmLewJohnsHere"%"and"#"are the special chars.Special chars are taken from the following list:~!#$%^&*()-=+[]\{}:;\"'<>?/0123456789Please note that several special chars might replace the same original
char, resulting in a passphrase with less special chars than requested.With-dyou can advisedicewareto put a delimiter string
between the words generated:$ diceware -d "_"
Wavy_Baden_400_Whelp_Quest_MaconBy default we use the empty string as delimiter, which is good for
copying via double click on Linux systems. But other delimiters might
make your passphrases more readable (and more secure, seeSecurity Trapsbelow).By default the single phrase words are capitalized, i.e. the first
char of each word is made uppercase. This does not necessarily give
better entropy (but protects against entropy loss due to nonprefix
code, seeSecurity Trapsbelow), and it might
improve phrase readability.You can nevertheless disable caps with the--no-capsoption:$ diceware --no-caps
oceanblendbaronferrylistenvaletThis will leave the input words untouched (upper-case stays upper-case,
lower-case stays lower-case). It doesnotmean, that all output words will be
lower-case (except if all words of your wordlist are lowercase).As the default lists ofdicewarecontain only lower-case terms, here--no-capsmeans in fact lower-case only output, which might be easier to
type on smart phones and similar.dicewaresupports also different sources of randomness, which can be
chosen with the-r<SOURCENAME>or--randomsource<SOURCENAME>option. Use the--helpoption to list all valid values for this
option.By default we use therandom.SystemRandomclass of standard Python
lib but you can also bring your own dice to create randomness:$ diceware -r realdice --dice-sides 6
Please roll 5 dice (or a single dice 5 times).
Enter your 5 dice results, separated by spaces: 6 4 2 3 1
Please roll 5 dice (or a single dice 5 times).
Enter your 5 dice results, separated by spaces: 5 4 3 6 2
...
UnleveledSimilarlyBackboardMurkyOasisReplayNormally dice have six sides. And this is also the default indicewareif you do not use--dice-sides. But if you do, you can
tell how many sides (all) your dice have. More sides will lead to less
rolls required.We support even sources of randomness from other packages. See thedocumentationfor more details.dicewarecomes with an English wordlist provided by theEFF, which will be
used by default and contains 7776 (=6^5) different words. This list is
registered asen_eff.Additionallydicewarecomes with an English wordlist provided by@heartsucker, which contains 8192 different words. This list is based off
the original diceware list written by Arnold G. Reinhold.You can enable a certain (installed) wordlist with the-woption:$ diceware --wordlist en_orig
YorkNodePrickEchoToriNiobeSeediceware--helpfor a list of all installed wordlists.You can also build phrases from adjectives and nouns (yet in english only)
using the includeden_adjectivesanden_nounslists. For that you specify
these two wordlists after each other:$ diceware -n 1 -w en_adjectives en_nouns
TediousPerimeterThese adjective/noun phrases might be easier to memorize.If you do not like the wordlists provided, you can use your own
one. AnyINFILEprovided will be parsed line by line and each line
considered a possible word. For instance:$ echo -e "hi\nhello\n" > mywordlist.txt
$ diceware mywordlist.txt
HelloHelloHiHiHiHelloWith dash (-) as filename you can pipe in wordlists:$ echo -e "hi\nhello\n" | diceware -
HiHiHelloHiHiHelloIn custom wordlists we take each line for a valid word and ignore
empty lines (i.e. lines containing whitespace characters only). Oh,
and we handle even PGP-signed wordlists.You can set customized default values in a configuration file.diceware.ini(note the leading dot) placed in your home
directory. This file could look like this:[diceware]
num = 7
caps = off
specials = 2
delimiter = "MYDELIMITER"
randomsource = "system"
wordlist = "en_securedrop"The options names have to match long argument names, as output by--help. The values set must meet the requirements valid for
commandline usage. All options must be set within a section[diceware].What is it good for?Normally,dicewarepassphrases are easier to remember than shorter
passwords constructed in more or less bizarre ways. But at the same
timedicewarepassphrases provide more entropy asxkcdcan show
with the famous ‘936’proof:The standard english wordlist of thisdicewareimplementation contains 7776 =
6^5 different english words. It is the officialEFFwordlist.  compiled byJoseph Bonneau. Therefore, picking a random word from this list gives an
entropy of nearly 12.9 bits. Picking six words means an entropy of 6 x 12.9 =
77.54 bits.The special chars replacing chars of the originally created passphrase
give some more entropy (the more chars you have, the more additional
entropy), but not much. For instance, for a sixteen chars phrase you
have sixteen possibilities to place one of the 36 special chars. That
makes 36 x 16 possibilities or an entropy of about 9.17 you can add.
To get an entropy increase of at least 10 bits, you have to put a
special char in a phrase with at least 29 chars (while at the same
time an additional word would give you 13 bits of extra
entropy). Therefore you might think again about using special chars in
your passphrase.Is it secure?The security level provided byDicewaredepends heavily on your
source of random. If the delivered randomness is good, then your
passphrases will be very strong. If instead someone can foresee the
numbers generated by a random number generator, your passphrases will
be surprisingly weak.This Python implementation uses (by default) therandom.SystemRandomsource provided by Python. On Un*x systems it
accesses/dev/urandom. You might want to follow reports about
manipulated random number generators in operating systems closely.The Python API of this package allows usage of other sources of
randomness when generating passphrases. This includes real dice. See
the-roption.Security TrapsThere are issues that might reduce the entropy of the passphrase
generated. One of them is theprefix codeproblem:Prefix CodeIf the wordlist contains, for example, the words:"air", "airport", "portable", "able"andwe switched off capsanddelimiter chars, thendicewaremight
generate a passphrase containing:"airportable"which could come fromair-portableorairport-able. We cannot
tell and an attacker would have less combinations to guess.To avoid that, you can leave caps enabled (the default), use any word
delimiter except the empty string or use theen_effwordlist,
which was checked to be aprefix code(i.e. it does not contain
words that start with other words in the list). Thept-bris also a secureprefix code.Each of these measures is sufficient to protect you against theprefix codeproblem.Reduced EntropyOverall,dicewareis a kind of mapping input values, dice throws for
instance, onto wordlist entries. We normally want each of the words in the
wordlist to be picked for passphrases with the same probability.This, however, is not possible, if the number of wordlist entries is not a
power of dice sides. In that case we cut some words of the wordlist and inform
the user about the matter. Reducing the number of words this way makes it
easier for attackers to guess the phrase picked.You can fix that problem by using longer wordlists.Developer InstallDevelopers want tofork me on github:$ git clone https://github.com/ulif/diceware.gitWe recommend to create and activate avirtualenvfirst:$ cd diceware/
$ virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3.8 py38
$ source py38/bin/activate
(py38) $We support Python versions 2.7, 3.4 to 3.9, and pypy.Now you can create the devel environment:(py38) $ python setup.py devThis will fetch test packages (py.test). You should be able to run
tests now:(py38) $ py.testIf you have also different Python versions installed you can usetoxfor using them all for testing:(py38) $ pip install tox   # only once
(py38) $ toxShould run tests in all supported Python versions.Documentation InstallThe docs can be generated withSphinx. The needed packages are
installed via:(py38) $ python setup.py docsTo create HTML you have to go to thedocs/directory and use the
preparedMakefile:(py38) $ cd docs/
(py38) $ makeThis should generate the docs indocs/_build/html/.Creating the Man PageWe provide aReStructuredTexTtemplate to create a man page. When the
documentation engine is installed (Sphinx, see above), then you can create a
manpage doing:(py38) $ rst2man.py docs/manpage.rst > diceware.1The template is mainly provided to ease the job of Debian maintainers.
Currently, it is not automatically updated. Dates, authors, synopsis, etc. have
to be updated manually. Information in the manpage may therefore be wrong,
outdated, or simply misleading.CreditsArnold G. Reinhold deserves all merits for the working parts ofDiceware. The non-working parts are certainly my fault.People that helped spotting bugs, providing solutions, etc.:Conor Schaefer (conorsch)Rodolfo Gouveia suggested to activate the--delimiteroption.@drebsprovided patches and discussion for different sources of
randomness and the excellentpt-brwordlist.@drebsalso initiated
and performed the packaging ofdicewarefor theDebianplatform. Many
kudos for this work!@drebsis also the official Debian maintainer of thedicewarepackage.@heartsuckerhand-compiled and added a new english wordlist.dwcoderrevealed and fixed bugs
#19, #21, #23. Also showed sound knowledge of (theoretical)
entropy. A pleasure to work with.George V. Reillypointed to new
EFF wordlists.lieryanbrought up theprefix
codeproblem.LogosOfJdiscovered and fixed
seriousrealdicesource of randomness problem.Bhavin Gandhifixed the confusing error
message when an invalid input filename is given.Simon Fondrie-Teitlercontributed a
machine-readable copyright file, with improvements from@anarcatDoug Muthfixed formatting in docs.Many thanks to all of them!LinksTheDicewarehome page. Reading definitely recommended!fork me on githubExternal Wordlists:Diceware standard listby Arnold G. Reinhold.Diceware8k listby Arnold G. Reinhold.Diceware SecureDrop listby@heartsucker.EFF large listprovided byEFF.English adjectives and nouns listsprovided byNaturalLanguagePasswords.LicenseThis Python implementation of Diceware, (C) 2015-2022 Uli Fouquet, is
licensed under the GPL v3+. See file LICENSE for details.“Diceware” is a trademark of Arnold G Reinhold, used with permission.The copyright for theDiceware8k listis owned by Arnold G Reinhold.  The
copyright for theDiceware SecureDrop listare owned by@heartsucker.
Copyright for theEFF large listbyJoseph BonneauandEFF. Copyright
for the brazilian portuguese list by@drebs. Copyright for the english
adjective and noun lists byNaturalLanguagePasswords. See file COPYRIGHT for
details.Changes0.10 (2022-02-15)Officially support Python 3.8 and Python 3.9.Removed official support for pypy2, Python 2.6, and Python 3.3.Allow to specify several wordlists in order to create syntactical valid
phrases.Also added first wordlists with english adjectives/nouns to generate for
instance <adjective-noun> phrases that are easier to memorize.When using real dice, allow entering of several rolls at once. Patch fromAdin Hoyle.Added german wordlists.Added carefully compiled brazilian portugese wordlist. Kudos to @drebs.Removed original diceware wordlists temporarily, for containing bad terms (#85)0.9.6 (2018-12-19)Officially support Python 3.7.Fixed #51: Fix to formatting of list in Wordlists section. Kudos toDoug
Muth.0.9.5 (2018-04-07)Fixed #28: use Debian-compliant, machine-readable copyright format. Kudos toSimon Fondrie-Teitlerand @anarcat.Fixed #48: Clarify trademark status of diceware. Mr. Reinhold granted
permission to use the name ‘Diceware’ in this project and under the conditions
listed in the issue comments. Many thanks to him!0.9.4 (2018-02-27)Set default logging level to ERROR (was: CRITICAL)Fixed #44: provide a short and readable file-not-found message (many thanks tobhavin192)Fixed #45: clean up logging handlers after test runs.Removed date-dependent tests from default test suite. Runpy.test-m''ortoxto run them.0.9.3 (2017-09-14)Fix broken test.0.9.2 (2017-09-14)Fixed #33. Makeen_effthe new default wordlist. This results in slightly
decreased entropy per word (12.92 bits instead of 13.0), but provides prefix
code and better memorizable words. Thanks to @anarcat for the suggestion.Fixed #35. Makerealdicesource of randomness provide an equal distribution
of roll numbers even for sequences shorter than number of dice sides.Added a man page.Support Python 3.6.ImportConfigParserinstead ofSafeConfigParserif the latter is an alias
of the former.Fixed #37. Ensure file descriptors are closed properly.Fixed #38. Get wordlists dir by function (instead of const) to allow
reproducible builds. Kudos go to @drebs, again.0.9.1 (2016-12-24)Fixed #32, in docs tell that--no-capsoption does not generate
lower-case terms.Fixed #31, brokenrealdicesource of randomness.argparserelated bug,
Bug was discovered and fixed by @LogosOfJ, thanks a lot!Fixed #29. Tell about code prefix problem in README.Activated logging. Usingverbosewill result in additional output.0.9 (2016-09-14)Added–dice-sidesoption to tell how many sides used dices
provide.Changed API interface ofget_config_dict()to allow more flexible
handling of config files.Support different verbosity levels.Added new wordlisten_eff. It is a 7776-terms list provided by
the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Seehttps://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/07/new-wordlists-random-passphrasesfor details. Thanks toGeorge V. Reillyfor hinting!Fixed #27. Allow dashes in numbered wordlists. Yet, these looked
like1234 myterm. We now also accept1-2-3-4myterm.0.8 (2016-05-07)Closed #23. @dwcoder provided a fix that allows use of
whitespace-only values in diceware config files if they are enclosed
in quotes.Fixed #21. @dwcoder revealed and fixed (again!). This time–capsand–no-capssettings did not work properly when set in CLI or in.diceware.iniconfig file.Shortened real-dice randomness source.Added logger as common interface to send messages to users.New dependency:sphinx_rtd_themefor generating docs. This theme
was formerly a dependency ofSphinx.0.7.1 (2016-04-21)Fixed #19. @dwcoder revealed and fixed a nasty bug in the real-dice
randomness-source. Thanks a lot!0.7 (2016-04-17)Added sample.diceware.ini.Added new english wordlisten_securedrop. This is the new
default list. Thanks toheartsuckerwho compiled and added the list.Remove support for Python 3.2. Several packages we depend on for testing
and sandboxing stopped Python 3.2 support. We follow them.0.6.1 (2015-12-15)Minor doc changes: add separate config file docs.Fix docs: the default wordlist is nameden. Some docs were not
up-to-date in that regard.0.6 (2015-12-15)Officially support Python 3.5.Tests do not depend onpytest-cov,pytest-xdistanymore.Support configuration files. You can set different defaults in a
file called.diceware.iniin your home directory.Renamed wordlisten_8ktoenas it serves as the default
for english passphrases.0.5 (2015-08-05)New option-r,--randomsource. We support a pluggable system
to define alternative sources of randomness. Currently supported
sources:"system"(to retrieve randomness from standard library,
default) andrealdice, which allows use of real dice.New option-w,--wordlist. We now provide several wordlists
for users to choose from. Own wordlists could already be fed todicewarebefore. By default we still use the 8192 words list fromhttp://diceware.com.RenameSRC_DIRtoWORDLISTS_DIR(reflecting what it stands for).Use also flake8 with tox.Passoptionstoget_passphrase()instead of a bunch of single args.Output wordlists dir in help output.0.4 (2015-03-30)Add –delimiter option (thanks to Rodolfo Gouveia).0.3.1 (2015-03-29)Turned formerdicewaremodule into a Python package. This is to
fixbug #1 Wordlists aren’t included during installation, this time really.
Wordlists will from now on be stored inside thedicewarepackage.
Again many thanks toconorschwho
digged deep into the matter and also came up with a very considerable
solution.Use readthedocs theme in docs.0.3 (2015-03-28)Fixbug #1 Wordlists aren’t included during installation. Thanks toconorschAdd –version option.0.2 (2015-03-27)Minor documentation changes.Updated copyright infos.Add support for custom wordlists.0.1 (2015-02-18)Initial release.