What the password crypt does

• The password crypt() is based on 56 bit DES, with different output based on the salt

• (it takes the user's password as the encryption key and uses it to encrypt a 64-bit block of zeros. The resulting 64-bit block of cipher text is then encrypted again with the user's password; the process is repeated a total of 25 times. The final 64 bits are unpacked into a string of 11 printable characters)

• How to crypt a plaintext password yourself:

• print crypt("password%*^!0","AE");

• AEp.KavrfPRpI

• print crypt("password","AE");

• AEp.KavrfPRpI

• print crypt("pássword","AE");

• AEp.KavrfPRpI

• print crypt("password","/9");

• /9qua3Q0m0i3o

• Only the first 8 characters are used and their 7 bits

• (95 characters to chose from gives 96^8 passwords = 7,213,895,789,838,336)