How Long Must a Password Actually Be?

Logosofia no Dia a Dia · May 15, 2026 · 32m

If you're stuck with a service that only uses password authentication — no two-factor, no hardware key — how long does that password actually need to be? In this episode, we break down the surprising math: a single RTX 4090 can try 300 billion guesses per second, and an eight-character random password falls in hours. We walk through what lengths actually buy you real protection, why the hash algorithm matters more than most people realize, and whether quantum computing changes the equation. Spoiler: twenty random characters is the "stop worrying" threshold. Episode 2840 —…