Create passwords for multiple records (PHP/mySQL)

**Jerry Stuckle** · Sep 25 '08, 01:05 PM

Re: Create passwords for multiple records (PHP/mySQL)

wozza wrote:

hi
>
I'm a Dreamweaver user who's created a few simple data entry/
registrations forms in my time, but I'm not really a coder (though I
can follow instructions and am not afraid to dabble...) - I generally
make use of DW's builtin commands and some extensions.
>
Anyway I'm creating a registration site for event exhibitors and I've
been asked to come up with a method of automatically generating
passwords for inserted records, either as they're inserted or at some
point later (i.e. some kind of mass password creation). Is there a
recognised way of populating multiple records' password fields with
random passwords (say 8 characters long)?
>
A couple of possible complications.. .
>
1. The client wants to be able to insert the rest of the exhibitor
data via a CSV upload (I'm using a Dreamweaver extension for this -
http://www.felixone.it/extensions/prod/mxiecsven.asp) as well as
creating individual records manually via the registration site.
>
2. They've also asked that the password avoids letter 'O' and numner
'0'.
>
Thanks in advance!
>

No standard way, but lots of different ways to generate passwords. Try
googling for

"password generator" php

You'll get lots of ideas.

--
=============== ===
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attgl obal.net
=============== ===

**C. (http://symcbean.blogspot.com/)** · Sep 25 '08, 01:05 PM

Re: Create passwords for multiple records (PHP/mySQL)

On 25 Sep, 13:27, wozza <warren...@goog lemail.comwrote :

hi
>
I'm a Dreamweaver user who's created a few simple data entry/
registrations forms in my time, but I'm not really a coder (though I
can follow instructions and am not afraid to dabble...) - I generally
make use of DW's builtin commands and some extensions.
>
Anyway I'm creating a registration site for event exhibitors and I've
been asked to come up with a method of automatically generating
passwords for inserted records, either as they're inserted or at some
point later (i.e. some kind of mass password creation). Is there a
recognised way of populating multiple records' password fields with
random passwords (say 8 characters long)?
>
A couple of possible complications.. .
>
1. The client wants to be able to insert the rest of the exhibitor
data via a CSV upload (I'm using a Dreamweaver extension for this -http://www.felixone.it/extensions/prod/mxiecsven.asp) as well as
creating individual records manually via the registration site.
>
2. They've also asked that the password avoids letter 'O' and numner
'0'.
>
Thanks in advance!

So you want to generate random passwords without the letter 0/number 0

A simple solution would be to generate a hash of the data along with a
secret salt - say

$password=str_r eplace('0', 'g', substr(sha1($da ta . 's3cr3t'),
0,8)); // sha1 is hex encoded i.e. 0-9,a-f

Or if you want a more random solution with more emphasis on
letters....

$chars=explode( ',',"a,b,c,d,e, f,g,h,i,j,k,m,n ,p,q,r,t,u,x,y, z,
2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 ,!,$,%,&,*,@,#" ); // for niceness I've also omitted l
(L) and 1 (one)
shuffle($chars) ;
$password=subst r($chars,0,8);

C.

**Geoff Berrow** · Sep 25 '08, 01:05 PM

Re: Create passwords for multiple records (PHP/mySQL)

Message-ID:
<3ad817e6-380a-4d9e-8abb-4af2dbfa6136@l4 3g2000hsh.googl egroups.comfrom
wozza contained the following:

>Anyway I'm creating a registration site for event exhibitors and I've
>been asked to come up with a method of automatically generating
>passwords for inserted records, either as they're inserted or at some
>point later (i.e. some kind of mass password creation). Is there a
>recognised way of populating multiple records' password fields with
>random passwords (say 8 characters long)?
>
>A couple of possible complications.. .
>
>1. The client wants to be able to insert the rest of the exhibitor
>data via a CSV upload (I'm using a Dreamweaver extension for this -
>http://www.felixone.it/extensions/prod/mxiecsven.asp) as well as
>creating individual records manually via the registration site.
>
>2. They've also asked that the password avoids letter 'O' and numner
>'0'.
>

What you are asking is not a major task for a coder and that's the
problem with DW generated code isn't it? You are fine until you want
something a bit different. In this case you may be better off paying
for an hour or so of a coder's time.

For the passwords, there are any number of scripts you could use. I
like to use a randomly chosen keyword (taken from a pool that I create
to suit the website) plus a randomly generated number between 0001 and
9999. This is reasonably secure as well as being fairly human friendly.
It's a good idea to make sure the username is unique, that way the
password need not be.

Here's the function I use, here with words which suit a financial theme
<?php
function passgen(){
$words=array("b usiness","entre preneur","econo my","bank","fin ance","money"," shares","incuba te","credit","i nvoice","direct or","efficient" ,"workplace","o ffice",
"sales","projec tion");
$key=array_rand ($words);
$num=rand(1,999 9);
$password=$word s[$key].$num;
return $password;
}

echo passgen();

?>

See http://4theweb.co.uk/test/test.php
--
Geoff Berrow 011000100110110 0010000000110
001101101011011 001000110111101 100111001011
100110001101101 111001011100111 010101101011
http://slipperyhill.co.uk - http://4theweb.co.uk

**r0g** · Sep 26 '08, 06:05 AM

Re: Create passwords for multiple records (PHP/mySQL)

wozza wrote:

hi
>
I'm a Dreamweaver user who's created a few simple data entry/
registrations forms in my time, but I'm not really a coder (though I
can follow instructions and am not afraid to dabble...) - I generally
make use of DW's builtin commands and some extensions.
>
Anyway I'm creating a registration site for event exhibitors and I've
been asked to come up with a method of automatically generating
passwords for inserted records, either as they're inserted or at some
point later (i.e. some kind of mass password creation). Is there a
recognised way of populating multiple records' password fields with
random passwords (say 8 characters long)?
>
A couple of possible complications.. .
>
1. The client wants to be able to insert the rest of the exhibitor
data via a CSV upload (I'm using a Dreamweaver extension for this -
http://www.felixone.it/extensions/prod/mxiecsven.asp) as well as
creating individual records manually via the registration site.
>
2. They've also asked that the password avoids letter 'O' and numner
'0'.
>
Thanks in advance!

There's no standard way as it's pretty trivial to write a function to
generate random strings. This is what I use...

function rseq($x)
{
# Returns string of random alphanumeric characters of specified
length $x
# Note - mtrand (mersenne twister) used as rand not actually very
random at all!
$d = "abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyzABC DEFGHIJKLMNOPQR STUVWXYZ0123456 789";
$dl = strlen($d)-1;
$s = '';
for($i = 0; $i < $x; $i++)
{
$s .= $d[(mt_rand(0,$dl) )];
}
return $s;
}

Just lose the O's and 0's from $d. Do also note that this uses mt_rand
as PHP's normal random number generator is REALLY REALLY AWFUL.

Not sure what you mean when you say 'insert the rest of the exhibitor
data via a CSV upload'... What do they have and what do they want you to
do with it?

Regards,

Roger.

**C. (http://symcbean.blogspot.com/)** · Sep 26 '08, 11:55 AM

Re: Create passwords for multiple records (PHP/mySQL)

On 25 Sep, 14:03, "C. (http://symcbean.blogsp ot.com/)"
<colin.mckin... @gmail.comwrote :

On 25 Sep, 13:27, wozza <warren...@goog lemail.comwrote :
>
>
>

hi

>

I'm a Dreamweaver user who's created a few simple data entry/
registrations forms in my time, but I'm not really a coder (though I
can follow instructions and am not afraid to dabble...) - I generally
make use of DW's builtin commands and some extensions.

>

Anyway I'm creating a registration site for event exhibitors and I've
been asked to come up with a method of automatically generating
passwords for inserted records, either as they're inserted or at some
point later (i.e. some kind of mass password creation). Is there a
recognised way of populating multiple records' password fields with
random passwords (say 8 characters long)?

>

A couple of possible complications.. .

>

1. The client wants to be able to insert the rest of the exhibitor
data via a CSV upload (I'm using a Dreamweaver extension for this -http://www.felixone.it/extensions/prod/mxiecsven.asp) as well as
creating individual records manually via the registration site.

>

2. They've also asked that the password avoids letter 'O' and numner
'0'.

>

Thanks in advance!

>
So you want to generate random passwords without the letter 0/number 0
>
A simple solution would be to generate a hash of the data along with a
secret salt - say
>
$password=str_r eplace('0', 'g', substr(sha1($da ta . 's3cr3t'),
0,8)); // sha1 is hex encoded i.e. 0-9,a-f
>
Or if you want a more random solution with more emphasis on
letters....
>
$chars=explode( ',',"a,b,c,d,e, f,g,h,i,j,k,m,n ,p,q,r,t,u,x,y, z,
2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 ,!,$,%,&,*,@,#" ); // for niceness I've also omitted l
(L) and 1 (one)
shuffle($chars) ;
$password=subst r($chars,0,8);
>
C.

Whoops - last line should be

$password=subst r(implode('',$c hars),0,8);

C.

**wozza** · Oct 2 '08, 05:05 PM

Re: Create passwords for multiple records (PHP/mySQL)

On 26 Sep, 07:01, r0g <aioe....@techn icalbloke.comwr ote:

wozza wrote:

hi

>

I'm a Dreamweaver user who's created a few simple data entry/
registrations forms in my time, but I'm not really a coder (though I
can follow instructions and am not afraid to dabble...) - I generally
make use of DW's builtin commands and some extensions.

>

Anyway I'm creating a registration site for event exhibitors and I've
been asked to come up with a method of automatically generating
passwords for inserted records, either as they're inserted or at some
point later (i.e. some kind of mass password creation). Is there a
recognised way of populating multiple records' password fields with
random passwords (say 8 characters long)?

>

A couple of possible complications.. .

>

1. The client wants to be able to insert the rest of the exhibitor
data via a CSV upload (I'm using a Dreamweaver extension for this -
http://www.felixone.it/extensions/prod/mxiecsven.asp) as well as
creating individual records manually via the registration site.

>

2. They've also asked that the password avoids letter 'O' and numner
'0'.

>

Thanks in advance!

>
There's no standard way as it's pretty trivial to write a function to
generate random strings. This is what I use...
>
function rseq($x)
{
# Returns string of random alphanumeric characters of specified
length $x
# Note - mtrand (mersenne twister) used as rand not actually very
random at all!
$d = "abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyzABC DEFGHIJKLMNOPQR STUVWXYZ0123456 789";
$dl = strlen($d)-1;
$s = '';
for($i = 0; $i < $x; $i++)
{
$s .= $d[(mt_rand(0,$dl) )];
}
return $s;
}
>
Just lose the O's and 0's from $d. Do also note that this uses mt_rand
as PHP's normal random number generator is REALLY REALLY AWFUL.
>
Not sure what you mean when you say 'insert the rest of the exhibitor
data via a CSV upload'... What do they have and what do they want you to
do with it?
>
Regards,
>
Roger.- Hide quoted text -
>
- Show quoted text -

Thanks for the replies guys. I've now decided to go a differetn route
in add the passwords to the records. Basically after inserting the
contents of a CSV (via that 3rd party extension for Dreamweaver I
mentioned) the browser is redirected to a php with the following
code:

<?php require_once('. ./Connections/connExhibiting. php'); ?>
<?php
mysql_select_db ($database_conn Exhibiting, $connExhibiting ) or
die(mysql_error ());

function genRandomString () {
$length = 8;
$characters = "123456789abcde fghijklmnpqrstu vwxyz";

for ($p = 0; $p < $length; $p++) {
$string .= $characters[mt_rand(0, strlen($charact ers))];
}

return $string;
}

$query = "SELECT ID, password FROM tblUsers";
$result = mysql_query($qu ery) or die(mysql_error ());
while($row = mysql_fetch_ass oc($result)) {
$id = $row['ID'];
$password = $row['password'];

$genPassword = genRandomString ();

$sql_update = "UPDATE tblUsers SET password = '$genPassword' WHERE
(password = '' OR password is NULL)";
mysql_query($sq l_update) or die(mysql_error ());
}
?>
<?php
mysql_free_resu lt($result);
?>

It _almost_ works, except the password is the same for all records - I
need the string returned by genRandomString () to be different for each
record - any help would be appreciated!

Cheers

**wozza** · Oct 2 '08, 05:35 PM

Re: Create passwords for multiple records (PHP/mySQL)

On Sep 26, 7:01 am, r0g <aioe....@techn icalbloke.comwr ote:

wozza wrote:

hi

>

I'm a Dreamweaver user who's created a few simple data entry/
registrations forms in my time, but I'm not really a coder (though I
can follow instructions and am not afraid to dabble...) - I generally
make use of DW's builtin commands and some extensions.

>

Anyway I'm creating a registration site for event exhibitors and I've
been asked to come up with a method of automatically generating
passwords for inserted records, either as they're inserted or at some
point later (i.e. some kind of mass password creation). Is there a
recognised way of populating multiple records' password fields with
random passwords (say 8 characters long)?

>

A couple of possible complications.. .

>

1. The client wants to be able to insert the rest of the exhibitor
data via a CSV upload (I'm using a Dreamweaver extension for this -
http://www.felixone.it/extensions/prod/mxiecsven.asp) as well as
creating individual records manually via the registration site.

>

2. They've also asked that the password avoids letter 'O' and numner
'0'.

>

Thanks in advance!

>
There's no standard way as it's pretty trivial to write a function to
generate random strings. This is what I use...
>
function rseq($x)
{
# Returns string of random alphanumeric characters of specified
length $x
# Note - mtrand (mersenne twister) used as rand not actually very
random at all!
$d = "abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyzABC DEFGHIJKLMNOPQR STUVWXYZ0123456 789";
$dl = strlen($d)-1;
$s = '';
for($i = 0; $i < $x; $i++)
{
$s .= $d[(mt_rand(0,$dl) )];
}
return $s;
}
>
Just lose the O's and 0's from $d. Do also note that this uses mt_rand
as PHP's normal random number generator is REALLY REALLY AWFUL.
>
Not sure what you mean when you say 'insert the rest of the exhibitor
data via a CSV upload'... What do they have and what do they want you to
do with it?
>
Regards,
>
Roger.- Hide quoted text -
>
- Show quoted text -

Thanks for the replies guys. I've now decided to go a differetn route
in add the passwords to the records. Basically after inserting the
contents of a CSV (via that 3rd party extension for Dreamweaver I
mentioned) the browser is redirected to a php with the following
code:

<?php require_once('. ./Connections/connExhibiting. php'); ?>
<?php
mysql_select_db ($database_conn Exhibiting, $connExhibiting ) or
die(mysql_error ());

function genRandomString () {
$length = 8;
$characters = "123456789abcde fghijklmnpqrstu vwxyz";

for ($p = 0; $p < $length; $p++) {
$string .= $characters[mt_rand(0, strlen($charact ers))];
}

return $string;

}

$query = "SELECT ID, password FROM tblUsers";
$result = mysql_query($qu ery) or die(mysql_error ());
while($row = mysql_fetch_ass oc($result)) {

$genPassword = genRandomString ();

$sql_update = "UPDATE tblUsers SET password = '$genPassword'
WHERE
(password = '' OR password is NULL)";
mysql_query($sq l_update) or die(mysql_error ());
}
?>
<?php
mysql_free_resu lt($result);
?>

It _almost_ works, except the password is the same for all records -
I
need the string returned by genRandomString () to be different for
each
record - any help would be appreciated!

Cheers

Create passwords for multiple records (PHP/mySQL)

Create passwords for multiple records (PHP/mySQL)

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