Re: MD5 passwords

[Ben Pfaff <pfaffben@pilot.msu.edu>]

Stephen Crowley <crow@debian.org> writes:

   > Why?  Is there an advantage to MD5 passwords?  (If this is a FAQ
   > please just point me to the appropriate FM to RT.)

   I guess the question would be, why not? It allows unlimited password length
   and is much harder to crack if someone does happen to get ahold of
   /etc/shadow. 

Do all system utilities support MD5 passwords?  Do they introduce
incompatibilities with other OSes?

I think that this should be brought up on debian-policy or
debian-devel as well: if we don't currently use MD5 passwords by
default, there may be a reason.

Also, it's not possible to convert passwords between MD5 and standard
crypt(), so it's not just a matter of doing something analogous to
`shadowconfig on'/`shadowconfig off' like we have for shadow
passwords.
-- 
"While the Melissa license is a bit unclear, Melissa aggressively
 encourages free distribution of its source code."
--Kevin Dalley <kevin@seti.org>