xref: /freebsd/lib/libcrypt/crypt.3 (revision bb15ca603fa442c72dde3f3cb8b46db6970e3950)
1.\" FreeSec: libcrypt for NetBSD
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 David Burren
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30.\" $FreeBSD$
31.\"
32.Dd April 9, 2011
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.It
192SHA-256
193.It
194SHA-512
195.El
196.Pp
197Other crypt formats may be easily added.
198An example salt would be:
199.Bl -tag -offset indent
200.It Cm "$4$thesalt$rest"
201.El
202.Pp
203.Ss "Traditional" crypt:
204.Pp
205The algorithm used will depend upon whether
206.Fn crypt_set_format
207has been called and whether a global default format has been specified.
208Unless a global default has been specified or
209.Fn crypt_set_format
210has set the format to something else, the built-in default format is
211used.
212This is currently
213.\"
214.\" NOTICE: Also make sure to update this
215.\"
216DES
217if it is available, or MD5 if not.
218.Pp
219How the salt is used will depend upon the algorithm for the hash.
220For
221best results, specify at least two characters of salt.
222.Pp
223The
224.Fn crypt_get_format
225function returns a constant string that represents the name of the
226algorithm currently used.
227Valid values are
228.\"
229.\" NOTICE: Also make sure to update this, too, as well
230.\"
231.Ql des ,
232.Ql blf ,
233.Ql md5 ,
234.Ql sha256 ,
235.Ql sha512
236and
237.Ql nth .
238.Pp
239The
240.Fn crypt_set_format
241function sets the default encoding format according to the supplied
242.Fa string .
243.Pp
244The global default format can be set using the
245.Pa /etc/auth.conf
246file using the
247.Va crypt_default
248property.
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 auth_getval 3 ,
266.Xr getpass 3 ,
267.Xr auth.conf 5 ,
268.Xr passwd 5
269.Sh HISTORY
270A rotor-based
271.Fn crypt
272function appeared in
273.At v6 .
274The current style
275.Fn crypt
276first appeared in
277.At v7 .
278.Pp
279The
280.Tn DES
281section of the code (FreeSec 1.0) was developed outside the United
282States of America as an unencumbered replacement for the U.S.-only
283.Nx
284libcrypt encryption library.
285.Sh AUTHORS
286.An -nosplit
287Originally written by
288.An David Burren Aq davidb@werj.com.au ,
289later additions and changes by
290.An Poul-Henning Kamp ,
291.An Mark R V Murray ,
292.An Michael Bretterklieber ,
293.An Kris Kennaway ,
294.An Brian Feldman ,
295.An Paul Herman
296and
297.An Niels Provos .
298.Sh BUGS
299The
300.Fn crypt
301function returns a pointer to static data, and subsequent calls to
302.Fn crypt
303will modify the same data.
304Likewise,
305.Fn crypt_set_format
306modifies static data.
307.Pp
308The NT-hash scheme does not use a salt,
309and is not hard
310for a competent attacker
311to break.
312Its use is not recommended.
313