Random PIN Generator

Most PINs are terrible

Analyses of leaked four-digit PIN datasets consistently find extreme concentration: 1234 alone accounts for roughly one in nine, and the top twenty combinations cover around a quarter of all PINs in use. Years beginning 19 are heavily over-represented, as are repeated digits and keypad patterns. An attacker with three attempts and a ranked list has meaningfully better than random odds, which is why a genuinely random PIN is worth generating rather than choosing.

Four digits is 10,000 combinations

That is a small space, and it only works because banking systems lock the card after three wrong attempts. The security comes from the lockout, not the PIN. Where there is no lockout, four digits is close to worthless and six or eight should be used instead.

Avoid anything derived from you

Birth year, house number, the last four digits of a phone number and a partner's birthday are the first things tried by anyone who knows you, and much of it is discoverable online. A PIN generated at random has no relationship to you, which is the entire point.

Patterns are worse than they look

Keypad shapes such as 2580, a straight line down the middle, appear far more often than chance would predict. So do ascending and descending runs, doubled pairs like 1122, and anything symmetrical. These feel random while typing and are near the top of every cracking list, because the same instinct produces them in most people.

Where the PIN goes

Write it somewhere separate from the card, or better, memorise it and store nothing. If a PIN must be recorded, a password manager is the right place. Never store it in a note on the phone that also holds the banking app, since a single compromised device then yields both factors.

Generated locally

Digits come from the browser's Web Crypto API and are never transmitted, logged or stored.

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