Despite linking to the famous XKCD comic, this document fails to heed the basic lesson that a passwords which a human must memorize should be easy for a human to memorize while being hard for a computer to guess. Master passwords for the password manager are an example of such.
A decent password manager can generate a proper passphrase: a series of native language words spelled correctly in simplest form (such as lowercase). These mnemonic phrases allow the average person to store more random entropy with less effort, and far less chance of forgetting their password.
Complex sequences of gibberish will result in users writing down passwords, reducing their entropy, or wasting excessive and unnecessary effort memorizing less entropy than they otherwise could, with a higher chance of forgetting after a vacation or break.
For passwords which can must be mnemonic, such as a master passphrase, I would change the advise to using a mnemonic phrase instead of random individual characters.
Despite linking to the famous XKCD comic, this document fails to heed the basic lesson that a passwords which a human must memorize should be easy for a human to memorize while being hard for a computer to guess. Master passwords for the password manager are an example of such.
A decent password manager can generate a proper passphrase: a series of native language words spelled correctly in simplest form (such as lowercase). These mnemonic phrases allow the average person to store more random entropy with less effort, and far less chance of forgetting their password.
Complex sequences of gibberish will result in users writing down passwords, reducing their entropy, or wasting excessive and unnecessary effort memorizing less entropy than they otherwise could, with a higher chance of forgetting after a vacation or break.
For passwords which can must be mnemonic, such as a master passphrase, I would change the advise to using a mnemonic phrase instead of random individual characters.