brentashley

I wanted to generate some reasonable passwords but make them rememberable. I looked into pronounceable passwords, but they relied on dictionaries or other support files, so I came up with a new approach – the Sport Score password. These passwords are designed to be remembered as a College sport score, for instance: Password KY5MA9 is remembered as Kentucky 5, Massachusetts 9.

50 states x 50 states x 10 x 10 = 250,000 unique passwords, good enough for many needs.

Here’s the PHP code…

$aPwd = getPassword();
print "Your password is a sport score: " . $aPwd['password'] . ", pronounced '" . $aPwd['text'] . "'";

function getPassword(){
  $aStates = Array (
    "ALABAMA"        => "AL", "ALASKA"        => "AK", "ARIZONA"        => "AZ",
    "ARKANSAS"       => "AR", "CALIFORNIA"    => "CA", "COLORADO"       => "CO", 
    "CONNECTICUT"    => "CT", "DELAWARE"      => "DE", "FLORIDA"        => "FL",
    "GEORGIA"        => "GA", "HAWAII"        => "HI", "IDAHO"          => "ID",
    "ILLINOIS"       => "IL", "INDIANA"       => "IN", "IOWA"           => "IA", 
    "KANSAS"         => "KS", "KENTUCKY"      => "KY", "LOUISIANA"      => "LA", 
    "MAINE"          => "ME", "MARYLAND"      => "MD", "MASSACHUSETTS"  => "MA",
    "MICHIGAN"       => "MI", "MINNESOTA"     => "MN", "MISSISSIPPI"    => "MS",
    "MISSOURI"       => "MO", "MONTANA"       => "MT", "NEBRASKA"       => "NE",
    "NEVADA"         => "NV", "NEW HAMPSHIRE" => "NH", "NEW JERSEY"     => "NJ",
    "NEW MEXICO"     => "NM", "NEW YORK"      => "NY", "NORTH CAROLINA" => "NC",
    "NORTH DAKOTA"   => "ND", "OHIO"          => "OH", "OKLAHOMA"       => "OK",
    "OREGON"         => "OR", "PENNSYLVANIA"  => "PA", "RHODE ISLAND"   => "RI", 
    "SOUTH CAROLINA" => "SC", "SOUTH DAKOTA"  => "SD", "TENNESSEE"      => "TN",
    "TEXAS"          => "TX", "UTAH"          => "UT", "VERMONT"        => "VT",
    "VIRGINIA"       => "VA", "WASHINGTON"    => "WA", "WEST VIRGINIA"  => "WV",
    "WISCONSIN"      => "WI", "WYOMING"       => "WY"
  );
  
  $aStateNames = array_keys($aStates);
  $aStateAbbrs = array_values($aStates);
  
  $pwd = '';
  $txt = '';
  $r = rand(0,49);
  $pwd .= "$aStateAbbrs[$r]";
  $txt .= "$aStateNames[$r]";
  $r = rand(1,9);
  $pwd .= "$r";
  $txt .= " $r, ";
  $r = rand(0,49);
  $pwd .= "$aStateAbbrs[$r]";
  $txt .= "$aStateNames[$r]";
  $r = rand(1,9);
  $pwd .= "$r";
  $txt .= " $r";
  
  return Array( 'password' => $pwd, 'text' => $txt );
}