Ken Thompson's Unix Password • Hacker News Board

Re: Ken Thompson's Unix Password

#71

Post by buckminster » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:35 PM UTC

melling wrote: post #23

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #5

I'm shocked at how well the old hashing stood up; sure, it's totally crackable today, but a well-picked password still took 4+ days to crack on modern hardware, which is remarkable. (Granted, it doesn't sound like they did anything fancy like throwing a hundred cloud instances at it or something; I'm not saying you should use DES today:) )

30 years ago I cracked everyone’s Unix password on an old Sun computer. It didn’t take long because everyone had a password that was in the dictionary. Needless to say, people were not happy with the messenger.

That's funny - I was going to post that I was first exposed to this thirty years ago when my password was cracked on an old Sun computer! I didn't complain, it was a wake up call. (You weren't at OUCS were you?)

Re: Ken Thompson's Unix Password

#72

Post by abjKT26nO8 » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:37 PM UTC

toolslive wrote: post #57

disappointed he didn't use algebraic notation. Could have been: e4e5f4ef

And it would be easier to crack this way.

Re: Ken Thompson's Unix Password

#73

Post by giorgioz » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:38 PM UTC

>Did he really use uppercase letters or even special chars? (A 7-bit exhaustive search would still take over 2 years on a modern GPU.)

>took 4+ days on an AMD Radeon Vega64

I don't understand. The author first claims that it would take 2 years on a modern GPU to brute force a 7 bit password with special characters but then he is helped by Nigel Williams that cracked it on 4 days on an AMD Radeon Vega64

Did Nigel Williams used a better technique? Is AMD Radeon Vega64 much faster than a "modern GPU"? Did the author overstimated the difficulty?

Re: Ken Thompson's Unix Password

#74

Post by politelemon » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:38 PM UTC

> (those familiar know the hash-rate fluctuates and slows down towards the end)

Could someone explain this to me, why does it slow down towards the end?

Re: Ken Thompson's Unix Password

#75

Post by Waterluvian » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:39 PM UTC

jonnycomputer wrote: post #64

the most amusing thing is the exclamation mark on such a banal opening move.

It's been decades. That means "Check!" right?

Re: Ken Thompson's Unix Password

#76

Post by CrazyStat » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:40 PM UTC

toolslive wrote: post #57

disappointed he didn't use algebraic notation. Could have been: e4e5f4ef

Algebraic notation wasn't in common use in the US until the 80s. 3BSD was released in 1979.

Re: Ken Thompson's Unix Password

#77

Post by bionsystem » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 2:41 PM UTC

newen wrote: post #48

CrazyStat wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is the beginning of the closed game, which is what the article says. Seems like a vacuous nitpick.

Not if you play chess. 1. d4 is played probably more than half the time in professional games. It can lead to lots of different openings, closed and open (but not at the same time).