"crypt" isn't encrytion

["Brian C. White" <bcwhite@verisim.com>]

> Wrong: ITAR regulations do not permit any sensible military technology
> (incl. cryptography) being moved out of the U.S. That includes DES and
> therefore libc as well!  As it stands right now, anybody mirroring any
> Linux distribution from the U.S (and anybody offering it!) is
> violating U.S. laws.
> 
> IMHO we will have to split libcrypt from the rest of libc!  I
> discussed that issue with H.J Lu about two years ago and he was not
> willing to take any actions: "Don't wake sleeping dogs..."  Not very
> sensible, but that is an attitude that many key-developers in the
> Linux community share.

I'm not sure what the scoop is with SSH, but...

"crypt" is not a form of encryption!  It is a one-way hash function,
just like MD5, CRC, and Checksum.  Granted, the later two can be
reversed with some difficulty.

Since there is no way to decode something encoded with "crypt", it
is not considered a threat by the government of the United States.

                                        Brian
                               ( bcwhite@verisim.com )

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