>>> Because there is no non-exportable version of the algorythms used
>>> for password encription.  [...]
>>> All the export-controlled algorythms can easily decript encrypted
>>> text.  That's why they are export-controlled. :-)

This sounds a little confused.

Passwords are not "encrypted" in the usual sense of the term.  The text
form that is stored is a (printable encoding of) a salted one-way
function of the password.  I know offhand of three different one-way
functions that are used for the purpose.

Confusing the issue is that the commonest by far of these algorithms
*is* based on real encryption, though it's not as simple as just
encrypting the password, and (as the poster may have known but it's not
clear in the above text) even a fully functional libcrypt is not
capable of turning a hashed password back into its cleartext form (or
the hashing would grant confer security at all, in practice).

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
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