generate a secure password in javascript

Here are some useful String functions:

String.prototype.pick = function(min, max) {
    var n, chars = '';

    if (typeof max === 'undefined') {
        n = min;
    } else {
        n = min + Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min + 1));
    }

    for (var i = 0; i < n; i++) {
        chars += this.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * this.length));
    }

    return chars;
};


// Credit to @Christoph: http://stackoverflow.com/a/962890/464744
String.prototype.shuffle = function() {
    var array = this.split('');
    var tmp, current, top = array.length;

    if (top) while (--top) {
        current = Math.floor(Math.random() * (top + 1));
        tmp = array[current];
        array[current] = array[top];
        array[top] = tmp;
    }

    return array.join('');
};

Your password would look like this:

var specials = '!@#$%^&*()_+{}:"<>?\|[];\',./`~';
var lowercase = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';
var uppercase = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
var numbers = '0123456789';

var all = specials + lowercase + uppercase + numbers;

var password = '';
password += specials.pick(1);
password += lowercase.pick(1);
password += uppercase.pick(1);
password += all.pick(3, 10);
password = password.shuffle();

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/Blender/ERCsD/6/


I just get the post now. It is a bad idea to use Math.random() if you can spend few minutes to look at this article.

Actually there are crypto API into newer browsers and you must use it as soon as you start something touching cryptography.

That why i recommand to use My library which use the famous crypto API. It works both on server and client side (nodejs and browsers).

mk-


I modified @Blender's answer to make it more secure, and also without altering String.prototype.

// Copy-pasted from:
// https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12635652/generate-a-secure-password-in-javascript
// and modified for Auth0.
//
// Auth0 requirements:
// https://auth0.com/docs/connections/database/password-strength
//
// "at least 10 characters including at least 3 of the following 4 types of characters:
// a lower-case letter, an upper-case letter, a number, a special character (such as !@#$%^&*).
// Not more than 2 identical characters in a row (such as 111 is not allowed)".

const specials = '!@#$%^&*()_+{}:"<>?\|[];\',./`~';
const lowercase = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';
const uppercase = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
const numbers = '0123456789';

const all = specials + lowercase + uppercase + numbers;

export default function generatePassword() {
  let password = '';

  password += pick(password, specials, 1, 3);
  password += pick(password, lowercase, 1, 3);
  password += pick(password, uppercase, 1, 3);
  password += pick(password, all, 10);

  return shuffle(password);
}

function pick(exclusions, string, min, max) {
  var n, chars = '';

  if (max === undefined) {
    n = min;
  } else {
    n = min + Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min + 1));
  }

  var i = 0;
  while (i < n) {
    const character = string.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * string.length));
    if (exclusions.indexOf(character) < 0 && chars.indexOf(character) < 0) {
      chars += character;
      i++;
    }
  }

  return chars;
}

// Credit to @Christoph: http://stackoverflow.com/a/962890/464744
function shuffle(string) {
  var array = string.split('');
  var tmp, current, top = array.length;

  if (top) while (--top) {
    current = Math.floor(Math.random() * (top + 1));
    tmp = array[current];
    array[current] = array[top];
    array[top] = tmp;
  }

  return array.join('');
}