Password Pattern Detector
See exactly which parts of a password are dictionary words, keyboard patterns, years, dates, repeats or sequences, with guesses per part. Runs locally.
Type a password above to analyze it. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Runs entirely in your browser. Your data is never uploaded.
What is Password Pattern Detector?
This tool splits a password into the pieces an attacker would recognise: dictionary words, leetspeak and reversed words, keyboard walks like qwerty, repeats, sequences, recent years and dates. Each piece is listed with its pattern type, details and estimated guesses.
How to use Password Pattern Detector
- Type a password into the Password field.
- Read the summary of how many predictable patterns were found.
- Check the table: Part, Pattern, Details and Estimated guesses.
- Replace the predictable parts with random words or characters.
Example
qwertyuiop1987
2 predictable pattern(s) found: qwertyuiop – Dictionary word ("qwertyuiop", rank 23 in Common passwords); 1987 – Recent year When to use Password Pattern Detector
Use it to understand why a password scores low or to demonstrate common patterns. To get an overall verdict and crack time, use the strength checker; to check for leaks, use the breach checker.
How Password Pattern Detector works
zxcvbn-ts finds every candidate match (dictionary lookups with l33t and reversed variants, spatial patterns on QWERTY/Dvorak/keypad graphs, repeat, sequence, date and recent-year regexes) and then chooses the sequence of non-overlapping matches with the smallest total number of guesses. Parts not covered by a pattern are marked as random and estimated by brute force. The table shows that optimal sequence.
Common Use Cases
- Finding the weak part of an otherwise long password
- Explaining keyboard-walk and year patterns in security training
- Reviewing password examples in documentation
- Checking whether a 'clever' substitution is recognised
FAQs
Why is qwertyuiop listed as a dictionary word and not a keyboard pattern?
It appears in the common-password list at rank 23, which is cheaper to guess than the keyboard pattern, and zxcvbn always reports the cheapest explanation.
What does 'No pattern (random)' mean?
No known pattern covers that part, so it is estimated as brute-forcing each character; these are the strong parts of the password.
Which keyboard layouts are recognised?
QWERTY, Dvorak and the numeric keypad layouts shipped with zxcvbn-ts.