Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
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Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
1–10 of 144 posts
Re: Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
#2>All major internet sites, anybody with more than 50.000 passwords, should design or configure a unique algorithm for their site
He probably means to use some combination of well known/tested algorithms rather than inventing your own crypto, but I think his wording is ambiguous enough to be dangerous. While there is some benefit to using a unique algorithm for your site, it's almost certainly more risky than using a secure algorithm (i.e. bcrypt/scrypt/etc) even if every other site was using it too.
Re: Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
#3Yes, of course. I have clarified the text now on this point.
Re: Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
#4>All major internet sites, anybody with more than 50.000 passwords, should design or configure a unique algorithm for their site He probably means to use some combination of well known/tested algorithms rather than inventing your own crypto, but I think his wording is ambiguous enough to be dangerous. While there is some benefit to using a unique algorithm for your site, it's almost certainly more risky than using a…
Also, if that's what should be encouraged, someone might as well put together a simple framework for automating it. Basically, you hard code a list of salts and a list of hash function names (which could also be automatically generated by a tool), and it gives you a new hash function which is the composition of those other functions. There's no reason for everyone to try to do it by hand and risk messing it up in some simple way. And if there were an easy to use framework for doing it, there would be no reason for only larger sites to use it. Using a custom hash function could simply be a best practice.
But honestly, I'd be pretty happy if we could get all sites with 50,000+ users to salt and hash their passwords with any algorithm.
Re: Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
#5Um. Haven't we known not to use MD5 for years now?
Re: Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
#6It's very telling that hardware is outpacing our own cryptographic techniques. I remember reading an article that stated that all passwords will someday be crackable due the advances in Quantum computing.
By that time we'll all know that your password is "I Love Care Bears 123" :P
Re: Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
#7>All major internet sites, anybody with more than 50.000 passwords, should design or configure a unique algorithm for their site He probably means to use some combination of well known/tested algorithms rather than inventing your own crypto, but I think his wording is ambiguous enough to be dangerous. While there is some benefit to using a unique algorithm for your site, it's almost certainly more risky than using a…
Also, if that's what should be encouraged, someone might as well put together a simple framework for automating it. Basically, you hard code a list of salts and a list of hash function names (which could also be automatically generated by a tool), and it gives you a new hash function which is the composition of those other functions. There's no reason for everyone to try to do it by hand and risk messing it up in som…
The PBKDF2 protocol allows you to safely brew your own password scrambler using any hash functions you choose. It is equivalent to bcrypt for common purposes, assuming the hash functions you pick are decent.
Here's a question for the people here who actually know wtf they're talking about: if I choose to iterate through a set of hash functions with each pass of PBKDF2 rather than using the same one each time, what effect does that have on the entropy of the system and so on? Would it make it easier to crack, or harder?
Re: Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
#8>All major internet sites, anybody with more than 50.000 passwords, should design or configure a unique algorithm for their site He probably means to use some combination of well known/tested algorithms rather than inventing your own crypto, but I think his wording is ambiguous enough to be dangerous. While there is some benefit to using a unique algorithm for your site, it's almost certainly more risky than using a…
Also, if that's what should be encouraged, someone might as well put together a simple framework for automating it. Basically, you hard code a list of salts and a list of hash function names (which could also be automatically generated by a tool), and it gives you a new hash function which is the composition of those other functions. There's no reason for everyone to try to do it by hand and risk messing it up in som…
Such a toolkit would probably be a good idea.
Tie a card-carrying cryptographer to a chair until he delivers it ?
Re: Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
#9Um. Haven't we known not to use MD5 for years now?
MD5 is not vulnerable as used in md5crypt.
Re: Md5crypt is no longer strong enough
#10That this is upvoted to #1, in 2012, on a site called Hacker News, is probably more notable than the article itself.