xref: /freebsd/lib/libcrypt/crypt.3 (revision 3ae0125a99dc29a8f8ca9ba933825e2447b54c6b)
1.\" FreeSec: libcrypt for NetBSD
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 David Burren
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30.\" $FreeBSD$
31.\"
32.Dd March 9, 2014
33.Dt CRYPT 3
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm crypt
37.Nd Trapdoor encryption
38.Sh LIBRARY
39.Lb libcrypt
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In unistd.h
42.Ft char *
43.Fn crypt "const char *key" "const char *salt"
44.Ft const char *
45.Fn crypt_get_format "void"
46.Ft int
47.Fn crypt_set_format "const char *string"
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Fn crypt
51function performs password hashing with additional code added to
52deter key search attempts.
53Different algorithms can be used to
54in the hash.
55.\"
56.\" NOTICE:
57.\" If you add more algorithms, make sure to update this list
58.\" and the default used for the Traditional format, below.
59.\"
60Currently these include the
61.Tn NBS
62.Tn Data Encryption Standard (DES) ,
63.Tn MD5
64hash,
65.Tn NT-Hash
66.Pq compatible with Microsoft's NT scheme
67and
68.Tn Blowfish .
69The algorithm used will depend upon the format of the Salt
70.Po
71following
72the Modular Crypt Format
73.Pq MCF
74.Pc ,
75if
76.Tn DES
77and/or
78.Tn Blowfish
79is installed or not, and whether
80.Fn crypt_set_format
81has been called to change the default.
82.Pp
83The first argument to
84.Nm
85is the data to hash
86.Pq usually a password ,
87in a
88.Dv NUL Ns -terminated
89string.
90The second is the salt, in one of three forms:
91.Pp
92.Bl -tag -width Traditional -compact -offset indent
93.It Extended
94If it begins with an underscore
95.Pq Dq _
96then the
97.Tn DES
98Extended Format
99is used in interpreting both the key and the salt, as outlined below.
100.It Modular
101If it begins with the string
102.Dq $digit$
103then the Modular Crypt Format is used, as outlined below.
104.It Traditional
105If neither of the above is true, it assumes the Traditional Format,
106using the entire string as the salt
107.Pq or the first portion .
108.El
109.Pp
110All routines are designed to be time-consuming.
111.Ss DES Extended Format:
112The
113.Ar key
114is divided into groups of 8 characters
115.Pq the last group is NUL-padded
116and the low-order 7 bits of each character
117.Pq 56 bits per group
118are used to form the
119.Tn DES
120key as follows:
121the first group of 56 bits becomes the initial
122.Tn DES
123key.
124For each additional group, the XOR of the encryption of the current
125.Tn DES
126key with itself and the group bits becomes the next
127.Tn DES
128key.
129.Pp
130The salt is a 9-character array consisting of an underscore followed
131by 4 bytes of iteration count and 4 bytes of salt.
132These are encoded as printable characters, 6 bits per character,
133least significant character first.
134The values 0 to 63 are encoded as
135.Dq ./0-9A-Za-z .
136This allows 24 bits for both
137.Fa count
138and
139.Fa salt .
140.Pp
141The
142.Fa salt
143introduces disorder in the
144.Tn DES
145algorithm in one of 16777216 or 4096 possible ways
146.Po
147i.e., with 24 or 12 bits: if bit
148.Em i
149of the
150.Ar salt
151is set, then bits
152.Em i
153and
154.Em i+24
155are swapped in the
156.Tn DES
157E-box output
158.Pc .
159.Pp
160The
161.Tn DES
162key is used to encrypt a 64-bit constant using
163.Ar count
164iterations of
165.Tn DES .
166The value returned is a
167.Dv NUL Ns -terminated
168string, 20 or 13 bytes
169.Pq plus NUL
170in length, consisting of the
171.Ar salt
172followed by the encoded 64-bit encryption.
173.Ss Modular crypt:
174If the salt begins with the string
175.Fa $digit$
176then the Modular Crypt Format is used.
177The
178.Fa digit
179represents which algorithm is used in encryption.
180Following the token is
181the actual salt to use in the encryption.
182The maximum length of the salt used depends upon the module.
183The salt must be terminated with the end of the string character
184.Pq NUL
185or a dollar sign.
186Any characters after the dollar sign are ignored.
187.Pp
188Currently supported algorithms are:
189.Pp
190.Bl -enum -compact -offset indent
191.It
192MD5
193.It
194Blowfish
195.It
196NT-Hash
197.It
198(unused)
199.It
200SHA-256
201.It
202SHA-512
203.El
204.Pp
205Other crypt formats may be easily added.
206An example salt would be:
207.Bl -tag -width 6n -offset indent
208.It Cm "$4$thesalt$rest"
209.El
210.Ss Traditional crypt:
211The algorithm used will depend upon whether
212.Fn crypt_set_format
213has been called and whether a global default format has been specified.
214Unless a global default has been specified or
215.Fn crypt_set_format
216has set the format to something else, the built-in default format is
217used.
218This is currently
219.\"
220.\" NOTICE: Also make sure to update this
221.\"
222DES
223if it is available, or MD5 if not.
224.Pp
225How the salt is used will depend upon the algorithm for the hash.
226For
227best results, specify at least eight characters of salt.
228.Pp
229The
230.Fn crypt_get_format
231function returns a constant string that represents the name of the
232algorithm currently used.
233Valid values are
234.\"
235.\" NOTICE: Also make sure to update this, too, as well
236.\"
237.Ql des ,
238.Ql blf ,
239.Ql md5 ,
240.Ql sha256 ,
241.Ql sha512
242and
243.Ql nth .
244.Pp
245The
246.Fn crypt_set_format
247function sets the default encoding format according to the supplied
248.Fa string .
249.Sh RETURN VALUES
250The
251.Fn crypt
252function returns a pointer to the encrypted value on success, and NULL on
253failure.
254Note: this is not a standard behaviour, AT&T
255.Fn crypt
256will always return a pointer to a string.
257.Pp
258The
259.Fn crypt_set_format
260function will return 1 if the supplied encoding format was valid.
261Otherwise, a value of 0 is returned.
262.Sh SEE ALSO
263.Xr login 1 ,
264.Xr passwd 1 ,
265.Xr getpass 3 ,
266.Xr passwd 5
267.Sh HISTORY
268A rotor-based
269.Fn crypt
270function appeared in
271.At v6 .
272The current style
273.Fn crypt
274first appeared in
275.At v7 .
276.Pp
277The
278.Tn DES
279section of the code (FreeSec 1.0) was developed outside the United
280States of America as an unencumbered replacement for the U.S.-only
281.Nx
282libcrypt encryption library.
283.Sh AUTHORS
284.An -nosplit
285Originally written by
286.An David Burren Aq davidb@werj.com.au ,
287later additions and changes by
288.An Poul-Henning Kamp ,
289.An Mark R V Murray ,
290.An Michael Bretterklieber ,
291.An Kris Kennaway ,
292.An Brian Feldman ,
293.An Paul Herman
294and
295.An Niels Provos .
296.Sh BUGS
297The
298.Fn crypt
299function returns a pointer to static data, and subsequent calls to
300.Fn crypt
301will modify the same data.
302Likewise,
303.Fn crypt_set_format
304modifies static data.
305.Pp
306The NT-hash scheme does not use a salt,
307and is not hard
308for a competent attacker
309to break.
310Its use is not recommended.
311