How secure is UNIX?

Jonathan I. Kamens jik at athena.mit.edu
Thu Jun 14 05:31:51 AEST 1990


In article <207 at rdb1.UUCP> root at rdb1.UUCP (Robert Barrell) writes:
>     Also, what about the CBW (Crypt-Breaker's Workshop) programs?  I
>believe they are only for entire files that have been encrypted, but
>don't know if they are useful for passwords or not.

  CBW is designed for breaking the encryption on files that were
encrypted using crypt(1).  The crypt program *does not* use DES
encryption, which is what the crypt(3) function uses.  Instead, it
uses "a one-rotor machine designed along the lines of the German
Enigma, but with a 256-element rotor" (that's from the man page).

  In other words, CBW isn't useful for breaking password encryption.

Jonathan Kamens			              USnail:
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