[CLUE-Tech] Re: [CLUE-TechDSL (Cisco Modem) - passwords

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 01-12 13:15, Sean LeBlanc wrote:
> On 01-06 18:30, Jeremiah Stanley wrote:
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> > 
> > > From some research I did last night it seems MD5 is a one way
> > > encryption.  I had to started to write a program to try and reverse
> > > the algorythm.  I have code for doing MD5 so I thought I would try and
> > > go the other way.  No such luck :^( .
> > 
> > Just for a reference to "crack" MD5 you would need to have all of the 
> > worlds computers working on this 24/7/365, take into account Moore's Law 
> > in this too. Now ignore the storage requirements for this with the ratio 
> > of 1 silicon atom to 1 bit of storage, which puts the storage requirement 
> > for this project at about twice the estimated amount of silicon in the 
> > universe. It would still take you 2^212 years, by that time I'm sure the 
> > sun will have supernova'd us all the component atoms wasting all those 
> > cycles we could have used to play solitaire and cure cancer. You may 
> > have better luck throwing in some differential calc and working against 
> > linear equations and all but it still hasn't been proven that MD5 is 
> > weak to anything but brute force. ;)
> 
> I'm curious...I thought that MD5 was shown to have some lack of randomness
> (I remember reading this about 1.5 years ago, I think) that may be exploited
> in some manner. And of course I don't have a cite for this. It may have been
> on Slashdot.
> 

I did find a reference to this, BTW:

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1828.txt

Scroll down to "Security Considerations". "Lack of randomness" really wasn't
the correct phrase, either..."lack of proper distribution" is maybe closer.


-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at attbi.com Yahoo:seanleblancathome 
ICQ:138565743 MSN:seanleblancathome AIM:sleblancathome 
When the going gets tough, the tough go grab a beer.