Re: The Turley A2 Chronicles Vol.5

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <53fkl3$n7k@news.wco.com>,
Charles T. Turley <cturley@wco.com> wrote:

   You're WAY off topic, and as I'm about to demonstrate, clueless
about computer security and the like, still.

>Per auri@woz.org - via alt.hackintosh post: ...about 75 peoples acct. 
>cracked the passwords eh, with 50% success?  Good post Auri!  
>Kill/cancel it if you wish.  I've already saved and sent it. See below!

>Subject:      Re: best unix passwd cracker
>From:         auri@woz.org (Auri Rahimzadeh (Auri Man))

   Password crackers are so illegal on the internet that nobody should
ever be able to get a copy, right? Wrong. CERT (http://www.cert.org),
about the most trusted organization for general computer security and
the like around, has copies of it on their ftp site, ftp.cert.org.
And those weren't put there by rogue hackers trying to show off their
skills.

   Account breakins are a big problem for sysadmins. Thus, it's in
their best interest to find accounts with easily guessable passwords
before someone without the right to do that does. A good, proactive
about security sysadmin can regularly run crack on their system's
password files and have it print out _which_ accounts (not necessarily
the password, just a report that it was successful) have bad
passwords.  At that point, giving the luser a lecture on security is a
good idea, as well as forcing them to change the password.

   [Certain clusters at Caltech had the password changing program
run crack on any new password you entered so that you'd be told
right off the bat that the password was insecure and wouldn't be
accepted. Users learned to wise up real fast in such a case.]

   Password crackers are a tool, similar to lock picks. There are
proper times and places that people can use them, and there are times
and places that they shouldn't. 

   Turley: please take this off-topic garbage elsewhere from csa2.
Giving you lectures on computer security may be very informative for
everyone reading them, but they're not appropriate.

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein