xref: /freebsd/lib/libcrypt/crypt.3 (revision 4fd2d3b6927878771635a3628ae1623daf810d39)
1.\" FreeSec: libcrypt for NetBSD
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 David Burren
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30.\" $FreeBSD$
31.\"
32.Dd January 19, 1997
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(compatible with Microsoft's NT scheme)
67and
68.Tn Blowfish .
69The algorithm used will depend upon the format of the Salt (following
70the Modular Crypt Format (MCF)), if
71.Tn DES
72and/or
73.Tn Blowfish
74is installed or not, and whether
75.Fn crypt_set_format
76has been called to change the default.
77.Pp
78The first argument to
79.Nm
80is the data to hash (usually a password), in a
81.Dv null Ns -terminated
82string.
83The second is the salt, in one of three forms:
84.Pp
85.Bl -tag -width Traditional -compact -offset indent
86.It Extended
87If it begins with an underscore
88.Pq Dq _
89then the
90.Tn DES
91Extended Format
92is used in interpreting both the key and the salt, as outlined below.
93.It Modular
94If it begins with the string
95.Dq $digit$
96then the Modular Crypt Format is used, as outlined below.
97.It Traditional
98If neither of the above is true, it assumes the Traditional Format,
99using the entire string as the salt (or the first portion).
100.El
101.Pp
102All routines are designed to be time-consuming.
103A brief test on a
104.Tn Pentium
105166/MMX shows the
106.Tn DES
107crypt to do approximately 2640 crypts
108a CPU second and MD5 to do about 62 crypts a CPU second.
109.Ss DES Extended Format:
110.Pp
111The
112.Ar key
113is divided into groups of 8 characters (the last group is null-padded)
114and the low-order 7 bits of each character (56 bits per group) are
115used to form the
116.Tn DES
117key as follows:
118the first group of 56 bits becomes the initial
119.Tn DES
120key.
121For each additional group, the XOR of the encryption of the current
122.Tn DES
123key with itself and the group bits becomes the next
124.Tn DES
125key.
126.Pp
127The salt is a 9-character array consisting of an underscore followed
128by 4 bytes of iteration count and 4 bytes of salt.
129These are encoded as printable characters, 6 bits per character,
130least significant character first.
131The values 0 to 63 are encoded as ``./0-9A-Za-z''.
132This allows 24 bits for both
133.Fa count
134and
135.Fa salt .
136.Pp
137The
138.Fa salt
139introduces disorder in the
140.Tn DES
141algorithm in one of 16777216 or 4096 possible ways
142(i.e., with 24 or 12 bits: if bit
143.Em i
144of the
145.Ar salt
146is set, then bits
147.Em i
148and
149.Em i+24
150are swapped in the
151.Tn DES
152E-box output).
153.Pp
154The
155.Tn DES
156key is used to encrypt a 64-bit constant using
157.Ar count
158iterations of
159.Tn DES .
160The value returned is a
161.Dv null Ns -terminated
162string, 20 or 13 bytes (plus null) in length, consisting of the
163.Ar salt
164followed by the encoded 64-bit encryption.
165.Ss "Modular" crypt:
166.Pp
167If the salt begins with the string
168.Fa $digit$
169then the Modular Crypt Format is used.
170The
171.Fa digit
172represents which algorithm is used in encryption.
173Following the token is
174the actual salt to use in the encryption.
175The length of the salt is limited
176to 8 characters--because the length of the returned output is also limited
177(_PASSWORD_LEN).
178The salt must be terminated with the end of the string
179(NULL) or a dollar sign.
180Any characters after the dollar sign are ignored.
181.Pp
182Currently supported algorithms are:
183.Pp
184.Bl -enum -compact -offset indent
185.It
186MD5
187.It
188Blowfish
189.It
190NT-Hash
191.El
192.Pp
193Other crypt formats may be easily added.
194An example salt would be:
195.Bl -tag -offset indent
196.It Cm "$4$thesalt$rest"
197.El
198.Pp
199.Ss "Traditional" crypt:
200.Pp
201The algorithm used will depend upon whether
202.Fn crypt_set_format
203has been called and whether a global default format has been specified.
204Unless a global default has been specified or
205.Fn crypt_set_format
206has set the format to something else, the built-in default format is
207used.
208This is currently
209.\"
210.\" NOTICE: Also make sure to update this
211.\"
212DES
213if it is available, or MD5 if not.
214.Pp
215How the salt is used will depend upon the algorithm for the hash.
216For
217best results, specify at least two characters of salt.
218.Pp
219The
220.Fn crypt_get_format
221function returns a constant string that represents the name of the
222algorithm currently used.
223Valid values are
224.\"
225.\" NOTICE: Also make sure to update this, too, as well
226.\"
227.Ql des ,
228.Ql blf ,
229.Ql md5
230and
231.Ql nth .
232.Pp
233The
234.Fn crypt_set_format
235function sets the default encoding format according to the supplied
236.Fa string .
237.Pp
238The global default format can be set using the
239.Pa /etc/auth.conf
240file using the
241.Va crypt_default
242property.
243.Sh RETURN VALUES
244The
245.Fn crypt
246function returns a pointer to the encrypted value on success, and NULL on
247failure.
248Note: this is not a standard behaviour, AT&T
249.Fn crypt
250will always return a pointer to a string.
251.Pp
252The
253.Fn crypt_set_format
254function will return 1 if the supplied encoding format was valid.
255Otherwise, a value of 0 is returned.
256.Sh SEE ALSO
257.Xr login 1 ,
258.Xr passwd 1 ,
259.Xr auth_getval 3 ,
260.Xr getpass 3 ,
261.Xr auth.conf 5 ,
262.Xr passwd 5
263.Sh HISTORY
264A rotor-based
265.Fn crypt
266function appeared in
267.At v6 .
268The current style
269.Fn crypt
270first appeared in
271.At v7 .
272.Pp
273The
274.Tn DES
275section of the code (FreeSec 1.0) was developed outside the United
276States of America as an unencumbered replacement for the U.S.-only
277.Nx
278libcrypt encryption library.
279.Sh AUTHORS
280.An -nosplit
281Originally written by
282.An David Burren Aq davidb@werj.com.au ,
283later additions and changes by
284.An Poul-Henning Kamp ,
285.An Mark R V Murray ,
286.An Michael Bretterklieber ,
287.An Kris Kennaway ,
288.An Brian Feldman ,
289.An Paul Herman
290and
291.An Niels Provos .
292.Sh BUGS
293The
294.Fn crypt
295function returns a pointer to static data, and subsequent calls to
296.Fn crypt
297will modify the same data.
298Likewise,
299.Fn crypt_set_format
300modifies static data.
301.Pp
302The NT-hash scheme does not use a salt,
303and is not hard
304for a competent attacker
305to break.
306Its use is not recommended.
307