Description of problem: Usage of index makes password guessing easier. Or does it? At least it can be used to narrow down possible passwords luser just shoved to passwd or some other program. $ cinfo pw_dict.pw? pw_dict.pwd: 578 pages, 0 pages cached (0.00%) pw_dict.pwi: 28 pages, 0 pages cached (0.00%) $ passwd Changing password for user safari. Changing password for safari. (current) UNIX password: New UNIX password: Retype new UNIX password: Sorry, passwords do not match. New UNIX password: $ $ cinfo pw_dict.pw? pw_dict.pwd: 578 pages, 32 pages cached (5.54%) pw_dict.pwi: 28 pages, 9 pages cached (32.14%) Even worse if pw_dict* are on NFS, which is advertized as "It's even efficient over NFS !" Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3. Actual results: Expected results: Additional info:
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. Could you elaborate? Are you suggesting that cracklib should read the entire dictionary file into memory? How would it ensure that the kernel did not repurpose the pages immediately?
I did not suggest reading the entire dictionary into memory. But my file is only 2 MB, maybe nobody would notice anything. How to solve timing attacks (i.e., if a daemon is asked about a word, when dictionary is not world-readable) and be secure against usage of mincore() (if dictionary is world-readable) is left as an exercise for the maintainer(s).
Changing version to '9' as part of upcoming Fedora 9 GA. More information and reason for this action is here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping
This message is a reminder that Fedora 9 is nearing its end of life. Approximately 30 (thirty) days from now Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora 9. It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 'version' of '9'. Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 9's end of life. Bug Reporter: Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we may not be able to fix it before Fedora 9 is end of life. If you would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version of Fedora please change the 'version' of this bug to the applicable version. If you are unable to change the version, please add a comment here and someone will do it for you. Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes bugs or makes them obsolete. The process we are following is described here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping
Fedora 9 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2009-07-10. Fedora 9 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.