Re: [gentoo-dev] Switching default password hashes from sha512 to yescrypt

[Joshua Kinard]

On 7/25/2022 15:30, Joshua Kinard wrote:
[snip]

>
> Some really quick looking around, I'm not finding any substantive
> discussions on why yescrypt is better than argon2.  It so far seems that it
> just got implemented in libxcrypt sooner than argon2 did, so that's why
> there is this sudden push for it.
>
> E.g., on Issue #45 in linux-pam[3], user ldv-alt just states "I'd recommend
> yescrypt instead.  Anyway, it has to be implemented in libcrypt.", but
> provides no justification for why they recommend yescrypt.  Since we're
> dealing with a fairly important function for system security, I kinda want
> something with much more context that presents pros and cons for this
> algorithm over others, especially argon2.

So there is this question and three answers on Crypto StackExchange.  It is
about five years-old, but it's got more detail on why argon2 won the PHC
instead of one of the other contenders.  It is still subjective information,
but more thorough:
https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/48933/why-did-argon2-win-the-phc

There's some more info if one continues to deep-dive on CSE, but I am
noticing a lot of the info is several years old.  Some more recent things
make references to a newer algo called Balloon, but that seems to be going
off into side-tangents.

Anyways, I guess I am just being paranoid.  If a change to hashing algos is
made, it should be based on facts and not popularity contests or feelings.

-- 
Joshua Kinard
Gentoo/MIPS
kumba@g.o
rsa6144/5C63F4E3F5C6C943 2015-04-27
177C 1972 1FB8 F254 BAD0 3E72 5C63 F4E3 F5C6 C943

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