Let's see: > If you are at all concerned about password "sniffing" attacks then md5 is preferred. Plain password should always be avoided if possible. However,

Let's see: > If you are at all concerned about password "sniffing" attacks then md5 is preferred. Plain password should always be avoided if possible. However, md5 cannot be used with the db_user_namespace feature. If the connection is protected by SSL encryption then password can be used safely (though SSL certificate authentication might be a better choice if one is depending on using SSL). Strongly implies that md5sum offers protection from an attacker sophisticated enough to sniff passwords of the network. Snif.