xref: /freebsd/lib/libcrypt/crypt.3 (revision f5f47d5068fb97df18eb114a66ae8ef51a0b3c8c)
1.\" FreeSec: libcrypt for NetBSD
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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:
110The
111.Ar key
112is divided into groups of 8 characters (the last group is null-padded)
113and the low-order 7 bits of each character (56 bits per group) are
114used to form the
115.Tn DES
116key as follows:
117the first group of 56 bits becomes the initial
118.Tn DES
119key.
120For each additional group, the XOR of the encryption of the current
121.Tn DES
122key with itself and the group bits becomes the next
123.Tn DES
124key.
125.Pp
126The salt is a 9-character array consisting of an underscore followed
127by 4 bytes of iteration count and 4 bytes of salt.
128These are encoded as printable characters, 6 bits per character,
129least significant character first.
130The values 0 to 63 are encoded as ``./0-9A-Za-z''.
131This allows 24 bits for both
132.Fa count
133and
134.Fa salt .
135.Pp
136The
137.Fa salt
138introduces disorder in the
139.Tn DES
140algorithm in one of 16777216 or 4096 possible ways
141(i.e., with 24 or 12 bits: if bit
142.Em i
143of the
144.Ar salt
145is set, then bits
146.Em i
147and
148.Em i+24
149are swapped in the
150.Tn DES
151E-box output).
152.Pp
153The
154.Tn DES
155key is used to encrypt a 64-bit constant using
156.Ar count
157iterations of
158.Tn DES .
159The value returned is a
160.Dv null Ns -terminated
161string, 20 or 13 bytes (plus null) in length, consisting of the
162.Ar salt
163followed by the encoded 64-bit encryption.
164.Ss "Modular" crypt:
165If the salt begins with the string
166.Fa $digit$
167then the Modular Crypt Format is used.
168The
169.Fa digit
170represents which algorithm is used in encryption.
171Following the token is
172the actual salt to use in the encryption.
173The length of the salt is limited
174to 8 characters--because the length of the returned output is also limited
175(_PASSWORD_LEN).
176The salt must be terminated with the end of the string
177(NULL) or a dollar sign.
178Any characters after the dollar sign are ignored.
179.Pp
180Currently supported algorithms are:
181.Pp
182.Bl -enum -compact -offset indent
183.It
184MD5
185.It
186Blowfish
187.It
188NT-Hash
189.It
190(unused)
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 -width 6n -offset indent
200.It Cm "$4$thesalt$rest"
201.El
202.Ss "Traditional" crypt:
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 ,
232.Ql sha256 ,
233.Ql sha512
234and
235.Ql nth .
236.Pp
237The
238.Fn crypt_set_format
239function sets the default encoding format according to the supplied
240.Fa string .
241.Sh RETURN VALUES
242The
243.Fn crypt
244function returns a pointer to the encrypted value on success, and NULL on
245failure.
246Note: this is not a standard behaviour, AT&T
247.Fn crypt
248will always return a pointer to a string.
249.Pp
250The
251.Fn crypt_set_format
252function will return 1 if the supplied encoding format was valid.
253Otherwise, a value of 0 is returned.
254.Sh SEE ALSO
255.Xr login 1 ,
256.Xr passwd 1 ,
257.Xr getpass 3 ,
258.Xr passwd 5
259.Sh HISTORY
260A rotor-based
261.Fn crypt
262function appeared in
263.At v6 .
264The current style
265.Fn crypt
266first appeared in
267.At v7 .
268.Pp
269The
270.Tn DES
271section of the code (FreeSec 1.0) was developed outside the United
272States of America as an unencumbered replacement for the U.S.-only
273.Nx
274libcrypt encryption library.
275.Sh AUTHORS
276.An -nosplit
277Originally written by
278.An David Burren Aq davidb@werj.com.au ,
279later additions and changes by
280.An Poul-Henning Kamp ,
281.An Mark R V Murray ,
282.An Michael Bretterklieber ,
283.An Kris Kennaway ,
284.An Brian Feldman ,
285.An Paul Herman
286and
287.An Niels Provos .
288.Sh BUGS
289The
290.Fn crypt
291function returns a pointer to static data, and subsequent calls to
292.Fn crypt
293will modify the same data.
294Likewise,
295.Fn crypt_set_format
296modifies static data.
297.Pp
298The NT-hash scheme does not use a salt,
299and is not hard
300for a competent attacker
301to break.
302Its use is not recommended.
303