Password Strength Checker 🔐

A terminal-based password strength checker built with Python.
Evaluates the quality of a password, offers improvement suggestions, and estimates the time it would take to crack using zxcvbn — a realistic password strength estimator developed by Dropbox.

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Author

Seán Harkin
2nd Year Computing & IT (Software) student.

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Features

• Secure input using getpass (password is hidden in terminal)
• Evaluates:
  • Minimum length (8 characters)
  • Presence of lowercase letters
  • Presence of uppercase letters
  • Presence of numbers
  • Presence of special characters
• Clean report style output with pass/fail indicators
• Suggests improvements for missing password traits
• Estimates crack time using the zxcvbn library
• Replayable loop with validation and memory clearing
• Clean, readable structure with functional logic and inline assignment

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Sample Output

================ New Test =================

Enter the password you would like to test: 
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Password Audit Report
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[✓] Minimum length (8)               Passed
[✓] Lowercase letter                 Passed
[✓] Uppercase letter                 Passed
[✗] Number                           Failed
[✗] Special character                Failed
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Suggested Improvements:
- Add at least one number.
- Use at least one special character (e.g. !@#$%).
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Overall Strength: Weak
Estimated Crack Time: 1 second

Test another password? (yes/no):

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How to Run

1. Make sure you have Python 3 installed.

2. Install zxcvbn via pip:

   pip install zxcvbn

3. Download or clone this repository.

4. Run the script from terminal:

   python password_strength_checker.py