Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!jik From: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: passwds and crypt(3)... Message-ID: <1990Jan8.174314.23026@athena.mit.edu> Date: 8 Jan 90 17:43:14 GMT References: <0000041@cdis-1.UUCP> <21966@adm.BRL.MIL> <1990Jan4.202253.27867@athena.mit.edu> Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system) Reply-To: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 21 In article <0000041@cdis-1.UUCP>, tanner@cdis-1.UUCP (Dr. T. Andrews) writes: > Given a password file for a machine with fewer than 4096 users, a > considerable savings of resources may be had by simply encrypting > all probable passwords with only the seeds actually present in > the password file. > > For a system with 10 legitimate users, you should need at most > 10 encryptions \(em less if two or more passwords share a seed. This is true. I was assuming that since the database being built is very large, it would be useful to build it with all possible seeds and then to use it to work on more than one file of passwords. After all, if you've got a machine with that much computron-power and that much disk space, you don't want to waste it by only trying to break into one machine, right :-)? Jonathan Kamens USnail: MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace jik@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134 Office: 617-253-8495 Home: 617-782-0710