Re:League of Legends database compromised, passwords hashed ...
by mrb on Saturday June 09, 2012 @04:51AM
(#4087640)
1. No. A good cryptographer will tell you to not re-invent crypto and to use existing peer-reviewed hash functions. This is why the NIST is hosting an open competition for selecting the future SHA-3.
2. This is exactly what happened with the custom proprietary "obscure" GSM A5/1 encryption algorithm. First it was reverse engineered (based on a leak), then David Hulton and Steve Muller created rainbow tables for it. The fact that it was a custom algo did not defeat the rainbow table's purpose.
There are many ways a custom hash algo designed by a company could end up being used across multiple of its password databases, and could subsequently be leaked, making the generation of rainbow tables possible and valuable (by rogue employees or hackers), that relying on the obscurity of a custom algo is a bad idea. As you recognized, salting is the ultimate protection. So there is no point in talking about alternatives.
2. This is exactly what happened with the custom proprietary "obscure" GSM A5/1 encryption algorithm. First it was reverse engineered (based on a leak), then David Hulton and Steve Muller created rainbow tables for it. The fact that it was a custom algo did not defeat the rainbow table's purpose.
There are many ways a custom hash algo designed by a company could end up being used across multiple of its password databases, and could subsequently be leaked, making the generation of rainbow tables possible and valuable (by rogue employees or hackers), that relying on the obscurity of a custom algo is a bad idea. As you recognized, salting is the ultimate protection. So there is no point in talking about alternatives.