Re: crack?

[Bolan Meek <Bolan.Meek@wcom.com>]

Ethan Pierce wrote:
> 
> Hi all, I wanted to test out crack on my /etc/passwd file...
> someone told me it takes 6 days to run for good passwords.
> While my root password is non dictionary, will crack work?

If it _really_ is non-dictionary, probably not, but I can't
answer for sure without studying if crack will go on from
intelligent cracking methods to the brute force of trying
everything, whether tracked-pseudo-randomly, or in order,
but I doubt so, since that should, theoretically and
statistically speaking, take _much_ longer than only six days.

You'll just have to try it out.

> Im very curious about how much a user can gain if he/she is
> able to cat my /etc/passwd

The same ability to run crack on it as you do, without having
to guess at login names, as it would be without it.  Plus the
ability to see if any logins have no password, some of which,
if not all, being so, present vulnerabilities.

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