Password security / complexity

[Peter Gillis]

Hi,
Can anyone suggest where I might be able to find software called 'crack' , suitable for use on hp ux11.00 systems - to test password complexity? Or can anyone tell me if there is some other way (easy hopefully!)to test the complexity of user passwords?

Thanks
Maria

[John Poff · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Steven Protter recently posted a thread about downloading and using 'crack'. Here is that thread:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x05b3afe90f1cd71190050090279cd0f9,00.html

JP

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Hi Maria,

John gave you the link to crack.

You may crack the passwords and warn the users to change. However, it will be much better if you don't let them set weak passwords in the first place.

So, consider converting your systems to trusted mode. The major advantage is that the passwords will be hidden. Additionally you can set different security options that will give you more flexibility in locking down the system further.


-Sri

[Steven E. Protter]

One proviso, which is in the thread.

Don't run crack on production systems.

ftp your /etc/passwd file to a test system, not the /etc directory.

You can specify on the command line the name of the file to run crack against.

crack is a resource hog and will slow down production systems. It did once completely lock up a L2000 rp5450 box which I was using to test different crack releases while I was researching the thread noted above.

Cheers, its a good tool and worth the trouble.

SEP