On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Pann McCuaig wrote: : On Thu, Nov 04, 1999 at 00:40, Oliver Elphick wrote: : : > Strictly, password encryption is authentication, rather than encryption, : > because password encryption is one-way: you cannot decrypt a password. : : Well, yes, but . . . : : What do you call "discovering" a weak password using the tools created : for that purpose?
Reverse engineering - the "tools created for that purpose" simply hash strings and compare the result to whatever is stored in /etc/passwd (or hopefully /etc/shdow); once you have a match you have presumably discovered the password. -- Nathan Norman MidcoNet 410 South Phillips Avenue Sioux Falls, SD mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.midco.net finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP Key: (0xA33B86E9)