3 ms·

Maybe so, but then that doesn't say much about the usual alternative which has even less entropy. EDIT: Actually I was going by xkcx's claims, which start with

Maybe so, but then that doesn't say much about the usual alternative which has even less entropy. EDIT: Actually I was going by xkcx's claims, which start with a dictionary word and adda random tweaks to it. I don't know off hand how long a random password would have to be to match 50 bits. But ultimately, that is the question; is this method at least as good as the alternative.

mrmcd 11y ago
Assuming 80 possible characters (A-Z,a-z,0-9 + 18 punctuation symbols), log2(80^8) ~= 50. So a correct horse password would be about the same as a random 8 character alpha-numeric entropy wise. The XKCD argument is that correct hose style is way easier to remember. It's possible Schneier thought Munroe was arguing that a correct horse was as much entropy as a 20 character random password, even though he isn't. This is the first I've heard of this argument though so I'm not even sure how much of a controversy it is.