Microsoft has released the availability of a strong password generator in Microsoft Authenticator, giving the authentication tool’s 75 million-plus active users the ability to generate a strong, random password.
Microsoft Authenticator currently provides passwordless authentication, push notifications, time-based one-time passwords and security alerts in addition to autofill passwords and other features. While the IT community appears to be moving towards passwordless solutions, many identity providers do not support passwordless authentication.
To help users generate passwords in the meantime, Authenticator will now help users generate complex and unique passwords directly in the app. Users can then sync, store and autofill passwords for their online accounts, including social media, shopping, productivity and gaming — all from their mobile device.
On Android, Authenticator will offer to generate a new strong password when users need it on an app or website, and iOS users can use the keyboard to open Authenticator to create a new strong password.
In a Tech Community blog, Microsoft says this new feature can help protect against credential compromises via attacks that use common passwords and phrases to hack into accounts. New passwords are generated using an enterprise-grade password generation algorithm and have built-in randomness.
To sync passwords on mobile devices, users will need to open Microsoft Authenticator, go to the passwords tab and start syncing data using their Microsoft Account.
Google Chrome users can also generate strong passwords using the Microsoft Autofill Extension on the Chrome web store. Generated and saved passwords will sync and autofill across devices logged in with the same Microsoft account, including mobile devices with Microsoft Authenticator app and desktop with Edge and the Chrome extension.
The company released the autofill password feature last year, along with the general availability of autofill for payment information using a person’s Microsoft Account via Authenticator.
Microsoft notes that the autofill feature syncs data using personal Microsoft accounts, not work or school accounts. However, admins can enable autofill for personal accounts.
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