Unix salt

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Article #3956

#3956

From: Raphael
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 00:00

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I have a question for a assignment that is due tomorrow morning that I
can't figure out.  I'd appreciate any help.
Here goes:

It was stated that the inclusion of the salt in the UNIX password scheme
increases the difficulty of guessing by a factor of 4096.  But the salt
may be stored in plaintext in the same entry as the corresponding
ciphertext password. Therefore, those two characters may be known to the
attacker and need not be guessed.  Why then is it asserted that the salt
increases security?

I have a feeling this is easy but I can't figure it out.  Can anyone
help?

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From: Raphael <rraphael_pierre@hotmail.com>
Subject: Unix salt
Date: 1999/12/13
Message-ID: <3854F0EA.83C6D130@hotmail.com>
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