[Wylug-help] Pam Password and obscure

[Jason Lander]

Dave,

Obvious jokes about security through obscurity resisted....

>  password   required   pam_unix.so nullok obscure min=4 max=8 md5

According to some SGML documentation in the pam source code... it checks 
for...

<item> <bf/Palindrome/ -

Is the new password a palindrome of the old one? A palindrome is where the
words read the same backwards and forwards (eg. madam and radar).

<item> <bf/Case Change Only/ -

Is the new password the the old one with only a change of case?

<item> <bf/Similar/ -

Is the new password too much like the old one?

     [The source code looks as if it checks to see how many characters in
      the old password are also in the new one]

<item> <bf/Simple/ -

Is the new password too small? This is based on the length of the
password and the number of different types of characters used (ie.alpha,
numeric...).

<item> <bf/Rotated/ -

Is the new password a rotated version of the old password (eg. "billy" and
"illyb")?

- Jason