Why 'ji32k7au4a83' Is a Remarkably Common Password

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://gizmodo.com/why-ji32k7au4a83-is-a-remarkably-common-password-1833045282

By Rhett Jones
Gizmodo.com
March 5, 2019

For too many people, moving the digits around in some variation of 
Patriots69Lover is their idea of a strong password. So you might expect 
something complicated like" "ji32k7au4a83" would be a great password. But 
according to the data breach repository Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), it shows up 
more often than one might expect.

This interesting bit of trivia comes from self-described hardware/software 
engineer Robert Ou, who recently asked his Twitter followers if they could 
explain why this seemingly random string of numbers has been seen by HIBP over 
a hundred times.

     Fun thing I learned today regarding secure passwords: the password
     "ji32k7au4a83" looks like it'd be decently secure, right? But if you
     check e.g. HIBP, it's been seen over a hundred times. Challenge: explain
     why and how this happened and how this password might be guessed

     — Robert Ou @ BSidesSF (@rqou_) March 1, 2019
     https://twitter.com/rqou_/status/1101331385632022528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Have I Been Pwned is an aggregator that was started by security expert Troy 
Hunt to help people find out if their email or personal data has shown up in 
any prominent data breaches. One service it offers is a password search that 
allows you to check if your password has shown up in any data breaches that are 
on the radar of the security community. In this case, "ji32k7au4a83" has been 
seen by HIBP in 141 breaches.

Several of Ou’s followers quickly figured out the solution to his riddle. The 
password is coming from the Zhuyin Fuhao system for transliterating Mandarin. 
The reason it’s showing up fairly often in a data breach repository is because 
"ji32k7au4a83: translates to English as "my password."

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