On Mon, Jun 19, 2017 at 08:02:28AM -0700, stan wrote:
> > That works as long as the website isn't hacked. If it is, even if the
> > passwords are hashed (which they often aren't), the hash can be
> > cracked if the password is weak.
> How?  Don't the attackers have to know the password hashing algorithm to
> do that? If they have enough penetration into the system to know that,

There are only a handful of commonly-used cryptographically-secure
hashes which are likely to be used, and they're relatively easy to
narrow down simply by looking at length. Or, if they're stored like
they are in /etc/shadow, the entire string actually includes an
identifier for the hash.

If the passwords are hashed in a non-standard way or with some made-up
thing... there's probably something wrong that a skilled attacker can
exploit. (Rule one of crypto: don't write your own crypto.)

-- 
Matthew Miller
<mat...@fedoraproject.org>
Fedora Project Leader
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