¹College of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Yudao Street 29, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210016, P.R. China
²Department of Software Engineering Nanjing University of Posts and Communications Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

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Abstract—nowadays, more and more people in China are connecting to Internet; the network environment becomes less secure due to large amount of network intruders. However, many of the network users tend to set easy passwords for their convenience. These vulnerable passwords increase the risk of information leakage. So it is necessary for us to analyze the habits and strength of the passwords set by the Chinese network users. In this paper, we collect over 20 million pieces of data published on the Internet by network intruders and analyze the features of passwords through statistical methods. We find some interesting patterns in order to quantify password strength through comprehensive analysis of password length, type, and other variables. Finally, we propose some suggestions for setting secure passwords.

Index Terms—password habits, password strength, Chinese network users, password security; web security

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Cite: Zhipeng Liu, Yefan Hong, Dechang Pi, "A Large-Scale Study of Web Password Habits of Chinese Network Users," Journal of Software vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 293-297, 2014.