From: Eric Murray <ericm@lne.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 11:52:50 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Unix Passwd (fwd)
Message-ID: <199612261952.LAA07314@slack.lne.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Laszlo Vecsey writes:
> On Thu, 26 Dec 1996, Eric Murray wrote:
> 
> > Fyodor Yarochkin writes:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Anyone has any success in breaking this?
> > > -f
> > 
> > Many people have tried breaking the cipher, I have not heard
> > of anyone being successful.
> > 
> > There is however a number of programs that attempt a brute-force
> > of passwords, the best is called 'crack' and is written by Alec Muffet.
> 
> >From Applied Cryptography (2nd edition) I got the impression that it has
> been cracked. Do a netsearch for "Crypt Breakers Workbench", its a
> freeware program that attempts to do just that.

Different crypt.  That's crypt(1), a modification of the Enigma
algorithim.  UNIX passwords use crypt(3), a modified DES.

Yea, the names are confusing.


-- 
Eric Murray  ericm@lne.com  ericm@motorcycle.com  http://www.lne.com/ericm
PGP keyid:E03F65E5 fingerprint:50 B0 A2 4C 7D 86 FC 03  92 E8 AC E6 7E 27 29 AF