xref: /freebsd/lib/libcrypt/crypt.3 (revision 2546665afcaf0d53dc2c7058fee96354b3680f5a)
1.\" FreeSec: libcrypt for NetBSD
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 David Burren
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30.\"	$FreeBSD$
31.\"
32.\" Manual page, using -mandoc macros
33.\"
34.Dd January 19, 1997
35.Dt CRYPT 3
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm crypt
39.Nd Trapdoor encryption
40.Sh LIBRARY
41.Lb libcrypt
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.In unistd.h
44.Ft char *
45.Fn crypt "const char *key" "const char *salt"
46.Ft const char *
47.Fn crypt_get_format "void"
48.Ft int
49.Fn crypt_set_format "const char *string"
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Fn crypt
53function performs password hashing with additional code added to
54deter key search attempts.
55Different algorithms can be used to
56in the hash.
57.\"
58.\" NOTICE:
59.\" If you add more algorithms, make sure to update this list
60.\" and the default used for the Traditional format, below.
61.\"
62Currently these include the
63.Tn NBS
64.Tn Data Encryption Standard (DES) ,
65.Tn MD5
66hash,
67.Tn NT-Hash
68(compatible with Microsoft's NT scheme)
69and
70.Tn Blowfish .
71The algorithm used will depend upon the format of the Salt (following
72the Modular Crypt Format (MCF)), if
73.Tn DES
74and/or
75.Tn Blowfish
76is installed or not, and whether
77.Fn crypt_set_format
78has been called to change the default.
79.Pp
80The first argument to
81.Nm
82is the data to hash (usually a password), in a
83.Dv null Ns -terminated
84string.
85The second is the salt, in one of three forms:
86.Pp
87.Bl -tag -width Traditional -compact -offset indent
88.It Extended
89If it begins with an underscore
90.Pq Dq _
91then the
92.Tn DES
93Extended Format
94is used in interpreting both the key and the salt, as outlined below.
95.It Modular
96If it begins with the string
97.Dq $digit$
98then the Modular Crypt Format is used, as outlined below.
99.It Traditional
100If neither of the above is true, it assumes the Traditional Format,
101using the entire string as the salt (or the first portion).
102.El
103.Pp
104All routines are designed to be time-consuming.
105A brief test on a
106.Tn Pentium
107166/MMX shows the
108.Tn DES
109crypt to do approximately 2640 crypts
110a CPU second and MD5 to do about 62 crypts a CPU second.
111.Ss DES Extended Format:
112.Pp
113The
114.Ar key
115is divided into groups of 8 characters (the last group is null-padded)
116and the low-order 7 bits of each character (56 bits per group) are
117used to form the
118.Tn DES
119key as follows:
120the first group of 56 bits becomes the initial
121.Tn DES
122key.
123For each additional group, the XOR of the encryption of the current
124.Tn DES
125key with itself and the group bits becomes the next
126.Tn DES
127key.
128.Pp
129The salt is a 9-character array consisting of an underscore followed
130by 4 bytes of iteration count and 4 bytes of salt.
131These are encoded as printable characters, 6 bits per character,
132least significant character first.
133The values 0 to 63 are encoded as ``./0-9A-Za-z''.
134This allows 24 bits for both
135.Fa count
136and
137.Fa salt .
138.Pp
139The
140.Fa salt
141introduces disorder in the
142.Tn DES
143algorithm in one of 16777216 or 4096 possible ways
144(i.e., with 24 or 12 bits: if bit
145.Em i
146of the
147.Ar salt
148is set, then bits
149.Em i
150and
151.Em i+24
152are swapped in the
153.Tn DES
154E-box output).
155.Pp
156The
157.Tn DES
158key is used to encrypt a 64-bit constant using
159.Ar count
160iterations of
161.Tn DES .
162The value returned is a
163.Dv null Ns -terminated
164string, 20 or 13 bytes (plus null) in length, consisting of the
165.Ar salt
166followed by the encoded 64-bit encryption.
167.Ss "Modular" crypt:
168.Pp
169If the salt begins with the string
170.Fa $digit$
171then the Modular Crypt Format is used.
172The
173.Fa digit
174represents which algorithm is used in encryption.
175Following the token is
176the actual salt to use in the encryption.
177The length of the salt is limited
178to 8 characters--because the length of the returned output is also limited
179(_PASSWORD_LEN).
180The salt must be terminated with the end of the string
181(NULL) or a dollar sign.
182Any characters after the dollar sign are ignored.
183.Pp
184Currently supported algorithms are:
185.Pp
186.Bl -enum -compact -offset indent
187.It
188MD5
189.It
190Blowfish
191.It
192NT-Hash
193.El
194.Pp
195Other crypt formats may be easily added.
196An example salt would be:
197.Bl -tag -offset indent
198.It Cm "$4$thesalt$rest"
199.El
200.Pp
201.Ss "Traditional" crypt:
202.Pp
203The algorithm used will depend upon whether
204.Fn crypt_set_format
205has been called and whether a global default format has been specified.
206Unless a global default has been specified or
207.Fn crypt_set_format
208has set the format to something else, the built-in default format is
209used.
210This is currently
211.\"
212.\" NOTICE: Also make sure to update this
213.\"
214DES
215if it is available, or MD5 if not.
216.Pp
217How the salt is used will depend upon the algorithm for the hash.
218For
219best results, specify at least two characters of salt.
220.Pp
221The
222.Fn crypt_get_format
223function returns a constant string that represents the name of the
224algorithm currently used.
225Valid values are
226.\"
227.\" NOTICE: Also make sure to update this, too, as well
228.\"
229.Ql des ,
230.Ql blf ,
231.Ql md5
232and
233.Ql nth .
234.Pp
235The
236.Fn crypt_set_format
237function sets the default encoding format according to the supplied
238.Fa string .
239.Pp
240The global default format can be set using the
241.Pa /etc/auth.conf
242file using the
243.Va crypt_default
244property.
245.Sh RETURN VALUES
246The
247.Fn crypt
248function returns a pointer to the encrypted value on success, and NULL on
249failure.
250Note: this is not a standard behaviour, AT&T
251.Fn crypt
252will always return a pointer to a string.
253.Pp
254The
255.Fn crypt_set_format
256function will return 1 if the supplied encoding format was valid.
257Otherwise, a value of 0 is returned.
258.Sh SEE ALSO
259.Xr login 1 ,
260.Xr passwd 1 ,
261.Xr auth_getval 3 ,
262.Xr cipher 3 ,
263.Xr getpass 3 ,
264.Xr auth.conf 5 ,
265.Xr passwd 5
266.Sh BUGS
267The
268.Fn crypt
269function returns a pointer to static data, and subsequent calls to
270.Fn crypt
271will modify the same data.
272Likewise,
273.Fn crypt_set_format
274modifies static data.
275.Pp
276The NT-hash scheme does not use a salt,
277and is not hard
278for a competent attacker
279to break.
280Its use is not recommended.
281.Sh HISTORY
282A rotor-based
283.Fn crypt
284function appeared in
285.At v6 .
286The current style
287.Fn crypt
288first appeared in
289.At v7 .
290.Pp
291The
292.Tn DES
293section of the code (FreeSec 1.0) was developed outside the United
294States of America as an unencumbered replacement for the U.S.-only
295.Nx
296libcrypt encryption library.
297.Sh AUTHORS
298.An -nosplit
299Originally written by
300.An David Burren Aq davidb@werj.com.au ,
301later additions and changes by
302.An Poul-Henning Kamp ,
303.An Mark R V Murray ,
304.An Michael Bretterklieber ,
305.An Kris Kennaway ,
306.An Brian Feldman ,
307.An Paul Herman
308and
309.An Niels Provos .
310