On Sat, 4 Sep 2010 10:45:48 +1000 (EST) Dave Horsfall <d...@horsfall.org> wrote: > Funny you should mention that. Back in the late 70s, a work > colleague suggested that the Unix crypt() function was a ring (we > both had mathematical backgrounds), which gave me the idea of > repeatedly encrypting the encrypted root password.
You mean a group. It is known that DES is not a group, but that result comes from a different use of the algorithm than the somewhat way DES is invoked in the crypt(3) algorithm, and I don't know if that modifies the result. None the less, I suspect it would be surprising if it turned out to be a group even in the use in crypt(3). Perry -- Perry E. Metzger pe...@piermont.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majord...@metzdowd.com
