Hey everybody,

I assumed that most linux distros use the MD5 algorithm for password encrytions.

How simple or difficult will it be to use a better algorithm such as blowfish or other algorithm. Will there be any compatibility issues?

My primary usage of linux is on the desktop. If you feel MD5 is adequate, let me know.

- Thanks

MD5 is sufficient unless you are doing top secret defence contract work! In which case you should consider a Fedora / Red Hat / CentOS setup with encrypted hard disk drives....

Thanks for the reply.

The reason I asked was because I heard of the hacks of MD5 keys. I know the linux community and distros already fixed the problem, but I wanted to be sure if using a better encrytion would be better. I'll stick with the MD5 for now.

Ah, to be honest you can change the encryption algorithm used, but it would be a hack, and no doubt breakable by someone, probably easier than breaking MD5.

Seriously though, unless your machine is in a public place, you should have no problems. Here is a link that describes the type of attack that MD5 passwords are most susceptible to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary_attack. If you ensure that your password contains a word, mix of upper and lower case, symbols, numbers all in a mix, it's very unlikely that it will be broken easily.

I was serious when I suggested encrypted hard drives, if your machine is in a public place, and someone can physically open it, they won't need your password to access your files!

I'm assuming your concern revolves around MD5 collisions, right? To get his hands on your hashes the attacker would have already either gained root privileges or obtained physical access to your box. Without the hashes in hand, the attacker wouldn't know when a collision was found. So even with collision attacks possible, the risk level remains steady as long as the probability of the hashes falling into the wrong hands remains steady.

My computer is fine.

I was just curious and wanted to know if upgrading from MD5 to blowfish would be better.

I am not running any type of public servers.

- Cheers