4 ms·

At least the passwords were hashed. I wonder what hash they used though. I'm tempted to bet good money it's going to be an inadequate one like SHA1 or a complet

At least the passwords were hashed. I wonder what hash they used though. I'm tempted to bet good money it's going to be an inadequate one like SHA1 or a completely broken one like MD5.

scovetta 9y ago
SHA-1 and MD5 are susceptible to collisions, not pre-image attacks, so replacing either with SHA-256 wouldn't really impact this scenario. The real question is whether they used iterated hashing (and to what degree), peppering, a keyed hash, or something else that would slow down a dictionary attack.
- JosephRedfern 9y ago
  I don't think OP suggested otherwise?
  - ivanbakel 9y ago
    I think it's relevant to GGP's use of "completely broken" - collisions are far less useful than actually extracting the password string, since one is transferable and has long-term potential, and the other will probably lose all its value pretty quickly, especially with a change of salt.
  - cyphar 9y ago
    While "inadequate" and "completely broken" are totally valid qualifiers for those hashing algorithms, the way in which they are broken doesn't affect sha1crypt or md5crypt (only a pre-image attack would break them, collisions are bad but not enough). That doesn't mean you should use them though (you should use bcrypt or similar).
meowface 9y ago
When the purpose of hashing is protection of passwords, MD5, SHA1, SHA256, etc. are all effectively equally broken. MD5 vs. SHA1 makes no real difference here. You can usually tell a company's security posture when they say "all passwords were hashed and salted" without listing the hashing algorithm. If they're using an algorithm actually suited for password hashing, like bcrypt, they'll usually state the name of the algorithm.
- Rjevski 9y ago
  To be honest I know that MD5 vs SHA1 or SHA512 is irrelevant in terms of password hashing, but personally seeing SHA512 would make me laugh a little less than MD5. Both are inadequate for this particular use-case, but at least seeing the modern hash would mean they tried to do the right thing.
kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
Little comfort if they weren't salted.

At least the passwords were hashed. I wonder what hash they used though. I'm tempted to bet good money it's going to be an inadequate one like SHA1 or a completely broken one like MD5.

scovetta 9y ago

SHA-1 and MD5 are susceptible to collisions, not pre-image attacks, so replacing either with SHA-256 wouldn't really impact this scenario. The real question is whether they used iterated hashing (and to what degree), peppering, a keyed hash, or something else that would slow down a dictionary attack.

JosephRedfern 9y ago
I don't think OP suggested otherwise?
- ivanbakel 9y ago
  I think it's relevant to GGP's use of "completely broken" - collisions are far less useful than actually extracting the password string, since one is transferable and has long-term potential, and the other will probably lose all its value pretty quickly, especially with a change of salt.
- cyphar 9y ago
  While "inadequate" and "completely broken" are totally valid qualifiers for those hashing algorithms, the way in which they are broken doesn't affect sha1crypt or md5crypt (only a pre-image attack would break them, collisions are bad but not enough). That doesn't mean you should use them though (you should use bcrypt or similar).

meowface 9y ago

When the purpose of hashing is protection of passwords, MD5, SHA1, SHA256, etc. are all effectively equally broken. MD5 vs. SHA1 makes no real difference here. You can usually tell a company's security posture when they say "all passwords were hashed and salted" without listing the hashing algorithm. If they're using an algorithm actually suited for password hashing, like bcrypt, they'll usually state the name of the algorithm.

Rjevski 9y ago
To be honest I know that MD5 vs SHA1 or SHA512 is irrelevant in terms of password hashing, but personally seeing SHA512 would make me laugh a little less than MD5. Both are inadequate for this particular use-case, but at least seeing the modern hash would mean they tried to do the right thing.

kevin_thibedeau 9y ago

Little comfort if they weren't salted.