Re: Hashing passwords

[Kai Wirt <u-turn1 () gmx de>]

On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 02:17:11PM +0530, gold flake wrote:
> A good discussion on the difference between a cryptographic hash and a
> password storage hash is at
>
> https://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/06/how-companies-can-beef-up-password-security/

There's one point with which i don't agree. While it is true, that salt doesn't help you
against dictionary or brute-force attacks one should still use salt. Basically there
are two ways to crack passwords. The first one starts by guessing passwords
and see if the guess is right. The second way is to try to invert the algorithm used
to generate the entries in the password file (using rainbow tables for instance).

Making the password algorithm slow makes the first type of attack infeasible, using salt 
the second.



Kai


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"They that give up essential liberties to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

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