Re:The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fi...
by daveguy on Sunday June 26, 2016 @11:52AM
(#11981277)
Three letter hash combinations and single letter hashes would all be essentially plaintext. The security of a hashed password comes from the fact that the password comes from a field of 2^(# of bits) possible values (with more useful bits the more types of "characters" allowed). If you only have a few characters that is so easily crackable (by brute force of every letter or three letter combination) that it might as well be plaintext. It is a security failure if they can get at some of the characters in a password.
However this is a memorable phrase (not password), similar to a security question. These are not generally hashed because customer service uses them to confirm authorization to reset a password.
Re:The “Cobra Effect” that is disabling paste on password fi...
by anowlcalledjosh on Sunday June 26, 2016 @12:09PM
(#11981366)
It would be absolutely trivial to enumerate all possible three-letter combinations and hash them. That's no better than storing in plaintext.
Still a lot easier to guess a portion of a password than a password, but it doesnt follow in my mind that it is definitely in plaintext.