3 ms·

I don't see what's wrong with my argument that choosing a pass phrase will have less entropy... Does less entropy not mean less secure? Or am I just reasoning

• stonemetal 13y ago
  Less entropy means less secure. However the method in the comic is not pick a passphrase. It is pick 4 random words(hopefully with the help of a computer with a good source of randomness, so they are really random). This is because phrases have semantic meaning and reduced entropy. Also people tend to pick phrases that are common enough to be found on the internet somewhere like movie quotes, book quotes and thus are likely to be in an attackers dictionary. So four random words not a phrase has better entropy than a passphrase, and is less likely to appear in a dictionary attack than a phrase.
  • caf 13y ago
    Right - this is the crucial point. The method suggested in the XKCD comic isn't to pick four words yourself out of your head - it's to randomly select four words from a dictionary.