Re: server security :: user accounts, ssh, passphrases, etc.

[Chris Bannister <mockingbird@earthlight.co.nz>]

On Sun, Apr 06, 2008 at 10:46:25AM -0500, Dave Sherohman wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 04, 2008 at 02:43:58AM +0200, s. keeling wrote:
> > Brian McKee <map@map-heb.com>:
> > >  On 3-Apr-08, at 1:23 PM, Dave Sherohman wrote:
> > > > Unless they take the time to successfully factor the
> > > > public key,
> > > 
> > >  Can you expand on that sentence?  I'm not sure what you meant by it.
> > 
> > I imagine he means a brute force crack.  Got a supercomputer or
> > botnet available?  Does the target use md5 passwords?  Good luck.
> 
> I do, but of a different (and much more difficult) type.
> 
> My (admittedly limited) understanding of public key crypto is that the
> public and private key are connected by the relationship of two extremly
> large prime numbers.  It is mathematically possible, then, to identify
> those numbers by factoring the numeric value of the public key and then
> use them to deduce the value of the private key.

Google "John the Ripper."

-- 
Chris.
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