Year 9 – Python programming with sequences of data Activity handout

Passwords
A network technician has set the following rules for passwords on their network:
● It has at least 8 characters
● It contains both upper case and lower case letters
● It contains at least one numeric digit
● It contains at least one symbol
So, a password like pyth0n would not be considered safe, whereas Pyth0n!stAs would.

Task 1 . Is it safe?
Create a Python program that prompts the user to enter a password and displays whether or not the
password follows the technician’s rules. .

Example
Note: Use this example to check your program. This is the output your program should produce for the given input.

The program displays a prompt and Enter a password:

waits for keyboard input

The user types in a password pyth0n

The program displays a message that pyth0n is not considered a safe password:
the password is not safe

Example
Note: Use this example to check your program. This is the output your program should produce for the given input.

The program displays a prompt and Enter a password:

waits for keyboard input

The user types in a password Pyth0n!stAs

The program displays a message that Pyth0n!stAs is considered a safe password.

the password is safe

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Year 9 – Python programming with sequences of data Activity handout

Checklist: Tick (✔) the corresponding box if your program:

Prompts the user for a password to check.

✔

Computes the length of the password.

✔

Computes whether or not the password contains any lower case characters OR computes
✔
how many lower case letters the password contains.

Computes whether or not the password contains any upper case characters OR computes
✔ how many upper case letters the password contains.

Computes whether or not the password contains any digits OR computes how many digits
✔
the password contains.

Computes whether or not the password contains any symbols OR computes how many
✔ symbols the password contains.

Displays a message informing the user whether or not the password provided meets the
✔
network criteria.

import random

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lowercase = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
uppercase = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'
digits = '0123456789'
symbols = '!,#,$,%,&,(),*,+,-,.,/,:,;,<,=,>,?,@,[,\,],^,_,`,{,|,},~'

password = input("Enter a password: ")

length = len(password)

lowercase_count = 0
uppercase_count = 0
digit_count = 0
symbol_count = 0

for char in password:

if char in lowercase:
lowercase_count += 1
if char in uppercase:
uppercase_count += 1
if char in digits:
digit_count += 1
if char in symbols:
symbol_count += 1

if length < 8:
print(password , " is not considered a safe password.")
elif lowercase_count == 0 or uppercase_count == 0 or digit_count == 0 or symbol_count
== 0:
print(password , " is not considered a safe password.")
else:
print(password , " is considered a safe password.")

Task 2 . Why not?

Extend the program so that it displays the safety criteria that are not met, in case an ‘unsafe’
password is provided.

Example
Note: Use this example to check your program. This is the output your program should produce for the given input.

The program displays a prompt and Enter a password:

waits for keyboard input

The user types in a password pyth0n

The program displays the safety Less than 8 characters

criteria that the password does not No uppercase letters
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Year 9 – Python programming with sequences of data Activity handout

meet No symbols

Checklist: Tick (✔ ) the corresponding box if your program:

Displays the individual safety criteria that are not met by the provided password (see
✔
example).

import random

lowercase = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
uppercase = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'
digits = '0123456789'
symbols = '!,#,$,%,&,(),*,+,-,.,/,:,;,<,=,>,?,@,[,\,],^,_,`,{,|,},~'
password = input("Enter a password: ")

length = len(password)

lowercase_count = 0
uppercase_count = 0
digit_count = 0
symbol_count = 0

for char in password:

if char in lowercase:
lowercase_count += 1
if char in uppercase:
uppercase_count += 1
if char in digits:
digit_count += 1
if char in symbols:
symbol_count += 1

criteria = []

if length < 8:
criteria.append("Less than 8 characters")
if lowercase_count == 0:
criteria.append("No lowercase letters")
if uppercase_count == 0:
criteria.append("No uppercase letters")
if digit_count == 0:
criteria.append("No digits")
if symbol_count == 0:
criteria.append("No symbols")

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Year 9 – Python programming with sequences of data Activity handout

if criteria:
print("The password does not meet the following criteria:")
for criterion in criteria:
print(criterion)
else:
print(password, "is considered a safe password.")

Explorer task . Generate a safe password

Create a program that generates a random password which meets the safety criteria outlined in the
introduction.

Clues . Look here if you need help

What are the variables I will need?

Think about the quantities you will need to refer to in your program, i.e. the values that your program
will need to keep track of.
You will probably need: the password entered by the user and a variable for its length.
To determine whether or not a password meets individual criteria, you could use variables such as
lowercase_count, uppercase_count, digit_count, and symbol_count, to count the number of lower case
letters, upper case letters, digits, and symbols in the password.

How do I iterate over the characters in the password?

Read the password as a piece of text. Use a for-loop to iterate over each character in the password.
The pseudocode below illustrates the idea:

for character in password:

process the character

How do I count the number of characters that... ?

For any quantity that you will need to count, you will need a counter variable to keep track of that
quantity. Every time you need to increase the counter, use an assignment like the one in the
pseudocode below:

counter = counter + 1

This statement can be read as ‘increase the counter by 1’. Don’t forget to initialise each counter to
zero.

How do I check if a character is... ?

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To check if a character belongs to a particular family of characters, use the in-operator:

character in text

The strings below will come in handy (copy and paste them in your code), for checking where each
individual character in the password belongs:

lowercase = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
uppercase = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'
digits = '0123456789'
symbols = '!"#$%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_`{|}~'

How do I select a random character from a string?

Import and use the choice function from the random module:

from random import choice

...
random character = choice(string)

How do I assemble the random characters together in a string?

Collect all the random characters into a list, say characters. Don’t forget to initialise the list of
characters.
At the end of your program, use the code below to join all the characters you have collected in
characters into a single password string:

password = "".join(characters)

How do I randomly shuffle the items of a list?

Depending on how you develop your solution, you might want to randomly shuffle the list of
characters you generate for your password. In order to do that, import and use the shuffle function
from the random module:

from random import shuffle

...
shuffle(list)

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