Re: Ontario Government Computers: Prudes Veto Vulgarity in Cyberspace

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#256

From: Chris Lewis
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 1994 06:26

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In article <CqsnMB.3Iu@ecf.toronto.edu>,
SEGAL  HENRY ALAN <segalh@ecf.toronto.edu> wrote:
>In article <2sjg65$68b@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>,
>Ed Thomson <ethomson@amazon.ncsa.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>>SEGAL  HENRY ALAN (segalh@ecf.toronto.edu) wrote:
>>
>>> Here is my reasoning:
>>> When your password is checked, what you type (as your password) is encrypted
>>> and compared with the entry in /etc/passwd.  (There is no decryption 
>>> algorithm.)  If the encryption guaranteed that no 2 passwords would have 
>>> identical encrypted forms, that would seem to make it easier to crack.
>>> So it seems more likely that no such guarantee exists.
>>> Therefore 2 passwords might work for the same account.

>>Hmmm...well, if that's true, then I think DES is terribly insecure (as if
>>we didn't already know this) and should be abandoned immediately...

[It doesn't use DES.]

>No, this does not make it insecure!  It is as hard to find the 2nd password
>(if there is one) as it would be to crack the original password.

As far as I am aware, noone has ever found two different passwords that encrypt
to the same cipher.  But it's supposedly possible.
-- 
Chris Lewis: _Una confibula non sat est_
Phone: Canada 613 832-0541  Ferret list: ferret-request@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
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From: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis)
Subject: Re: Ontario Government Computers: Prudes Veto Vulgarity in Cyberspace
Message-ID: <Cqt5wx.6qx@ferret.ocunix.on.ca>
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 06:26:57 GMT
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References: <2s15uu$55d@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <CqqtBG.BGE@ecf.toronto.edu> <2sjg65$68b@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <CqsnMB.3Iu@ecf.toronto.edu>
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