Advanced Password Generator (APG) Clone

apg-go is a simple APG-like password generator script written in Go. It tries to replicate the functionality of the "Automated Password Generator", which hasn't been maintained since 2003. Since more and more Unix distributions are abondoning the tool, I was looking for an alternative. FreeBSD for example recommends "security/makepasswd", which is written in Perl but requires a lot of dependency packages and doesn't offer the feature-set/flexibility of APG.

Therefore, as a first attempt, I decided to write my own implementation in Perl, but since I just started learning Go, I gave it another try and reproduced apg.pl in Go as apg.go.

Since FIPS-181 (pronouncable passwords) has been withdrawn in 2015, I didn't see any use in replicating that feature. Therfore apg.go does not support pronouncable passwords.

Installation

Binary releases

Linux/BSD/MacOS

• Download release

  $ curl -LO https://github.com/wneessen/apg.go/releases/download/v<version>/apg-v<version>-<os>-<architecture>.tar.gz
  $ curl -LO https://github.com/wneessen/apg.go/releases/download/v<version>/apg-v<version>-<os>-<architecture>.tar.gz.sha256
  

• Verify the checksum

  $ sha256 apg-v<version>-<os>-<architecture>.tar.gz 
  $ cat apg-v<version>-<os>-<architecture>.tar.gz.sha256
  

  Make sure the checksum of the downloaded file and the checksum in the .sha256 match
• Extract archive

  $ tar xzf apg-v<version>-<os>-<architecture>.tar.gz
  

• Execute

  $ ./apg
  

Windows

• Download release

  PS> Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://github.com/wneessen/apg.go/releases/download/v<version>/apg-v<version>-windows-<architecture>.zip -OutFile apg-v<version>-windows-<architecure>.zip
  PS> Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://github.com/wneessen/apg.go/releases/download/v<version>/apg-v<version>-windows-<architecture>.zip.sha256 -OutFile apg-v<version>-windows-<architecure>.zip.sha256
  

• Verify the checksum

  PS> Get-FileHash apg-v<version>-windows-<architecture>.zip | Format-List
  PS> type apg-v<version>-windows-<architecture>.zip.sha256
  

  Make sure the checksum of the downloaded file and the checksum in the .sha256 match
• Extract archive

  PS> Expand-Archive -LiteralPath apg-v<version>-windows-<architecture>
  

• Execute

  PS> cd apg-v<version>-windows-<architecture> 
  PS> apg.exe
  

Sources

• Download sources

  $ curl -LO https://github.com/wneessen/apg.go/archive/refs/tags/v<version>.tar.gz
  

• Extract source

  $ tar xzf v<version>.tar.gz
  

• Build binary

  $ cd apg.go-<version>
  $ go build -o apg ./...
  

• Execute the brand new binary

  $ ./apg
  

Systemwide installation

It is recommed to install apg in a directory of your $PATH environment. To do so run: (In this example we use /usr/local/bin as system-wide binary path. YMMV)

$ sudo cp apg /usr/local/bin/apg

CLI parameters

apg.go replicates some of the parameters of the original APG. Some parameters are different though:

• -m <length>: The minimum length of the password to be generated (Default: 20)
• -x <length>: The maximum length of the password to be generated (Default: 20)
• -n <number of passwords>: The amount of passwords to be generated (Default: 1)
• -E <list of characters>: Do not use the specified characters in generated passwords
• -M <[LUNSHClunshc]>: New style password parameters (upper-case enables, lower-case disables)
• -L: Use lower-case characters in passwords (Default: on)
• -U: Use upper-case characters in passwords (Default: on)
• -N: Use numeric characters in passwords (Default: on)
• -S: Use special characters in passwords (Default: off)
• -H: Avoid ambiguous characters in passwords (i. e.: 1, l, I, o, O, 0) (Default: off)
• -C: Generate complex passwords (implies -L -U -N -S and disables -H) (Default: off)
• -l: Spell generated passwords (Default: off)
• -h: Show a CLI help text
• -v: Show the version number