Re: Password encryption

[Matthew Dalton <matthewd@research.canon.com.au>]

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?

These tools do not decrypt passwords. They perform a `dictionary attack`
- they take words from a list and encrypt them. If the encrypted
password matches the one in the password file, the password is cracked.

It's a bit more complicated than this, but this is basically how they
work.

Matthew