password
Sign in to savethumb|A password field in a sign-in form A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services that a typical individual accesses can make memorization of unique passwords for each service impractical. Using the terminology of the NIST Digital Identity Guidelines, the secret is held by a party called the claimant while the party verifying the identity of the claimant is called the verifier. When the claimant
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A password is a secret string of characters that you enter to prove who you are when logging into accounts and services. Passwords matter because they protect your personal information by ensuring that only you can access your accounts, though managing many different passwords across different services has become a practical challenge for most people.
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Article
29 sectionsContents
- History
- Choosing a secure and memorable password
- Alternatives to memorization
- Factors in the security of a password system
- Rate at which an attacker can try guessed passwords
- Limits on the number of password guesses
- Form of stored passwords
- Methods of verifying a password over a network
- Simple transmission of the password
- Transmission through encrypted channels
- Hash-based challenge–response methods
- Zero-knowledge password proofs
- Procedures for changing passwords
- Password longevity
- Number of users per password
- Password security architecture
- Password reuse
- Writing down passwords on paper
- After death
- Multi-factor authentication
- Password rotation
- Password rules
- Password cracking
- Incidents
- Alternatives to passwords for authentication
- Obsolescence
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|A password field in a sign-in form A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services that a typical individual accesses can make memorization of unique passwords for each service impractical. Using the terminology of the NIST Digital Identity Guidelines, the secret is held by a party called the claimant while the party verifying the identity of the claimant is called the verifier. When the claimant successfully demonstrates knowledge of the password to the verifier through an established authentication protocol, the verifier is able to infer the claimant's identity.
In general, a password is a sequence of characters including letters, digits, or other symbols. If the permissible characters are constrained to be numeric, the corresponding secret is sometimes called a personal identification number (PIN).