Re: [RFC][PATCH][BZ 2100] blowfish support in libcrypt

[Björn Esser <bjoern dot esser at gmail dot com>]

Am 01.06.2017 um 11:23 schrieb Florian Weimer:
> On 05/31/2017 07:33 PM, Björn Esser wrote:
> > +Solar Designer <solar at openwall.com>
> I think we generally prefer patch submission from the original author or
> copyright holder.
>
> Are the crypt_gensalt functions strongly related to Blowfish support?
> In any case, they need documentation, and I'm not sure if the interfaces
> are properly designed (haven't looked in detail, admittedly).
>
> The FIPS changes in the patch appear to be incorrect.  Surely Blowfish
> should be disabled in FIPS mode, too.

I'll change this in the next version of this patch.

> The other question is why we should add Blowfish support when the cipher
> is pretty much on everyone's banned list.

Well, it depends on it's use case.  If we're talking about encrypting 
large data streams then it's to be considered deprecated or vulnerable 
(SWEET32);  talking about password hashing it still offers some 
advantages over other algorithms (brute forcing takes unlikely much more 
time on bcrypt hashed passwords) and excellent security.  Look at 
OpenBSD, SUSE, OpenWall, etc. still using bcrypt as the default password 
hashing algorithm.

> Thanks,
> Florian