This is similar to Choose the word list for passphrases but I wanted to put an emphasis on security. That requesst is for supporting custom dictionaries. This request is for a larger default dictionary.
Using Diceware is convenient because it’s already groomed for use in passphrases (uniqueness, memorability, etc), but that dictionary is unnecessarily limited since it’s optimized for dice. 6⁵ is 7,776 words while a spelling dictionary has 100,000 words, so Diceware would need a list requiring seven rolls to match a spelling dictionary. A six-word Diceware passpharse has an entropy of log₂(7776⁶) = 77.5 while a five-word passphrase generated from SCOWL aspell’s standard american-dictionary (104,334 words, 258kB gzipped) has an entropy of log₂(104334⁵) = 83.4.
Feature name
- Use a larger default word list
Feature function
- What will this feature do differently?
- Big entropy improvement for all generated passphrases
- What benefits will this feature bring?
- Generated passphrases will be significantly harder to attack
Related topics + references
- Related request: Choose the word list for passphrases
- Example open-access dictionary collection: SCOWL aspell