Fun with MD5 hashes and Google

Think that your applications that store passwords as an MD5 hash are secure? Think again:

doug@dmuth ~ $ echo -n "password" |md5sum
5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99

Searching for 5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99 on Google turns up a number of hits in various password files that are on the web for some reason or another. I don't know whether those accounts are active/current, but I still find that prospect rather frightening.

One solution is to use at least 64 bits Salt when creating a hash based on a password. This in turn will require the attacker to make up to 2^64 hashes for each password that the wish to guess. (flaws in MD5 aside)

Things I've been up to

Random things I've done over the last few uh, weeks and weekends:

• tailen and I purchased ham radios. I'd like to thank folks for their suggestions. We finally ended up going with a set of Icom IC-T7Hs with the RH77CA extra long antennas. We've had range of about a about on the 2m and 70cm bands.

  As time permits, I'm going to play around with repeaters and try to find a local club or civil defense group I can get involved with.

• I tried getting a sofa, and that didn't work out too well. The one I ordered was about 90 inches long, and it ended up not fitting through the foyer in my apartment. Strawbridges kindly refunded my money and I ended up finding a smaller sectional sofa there. The bigger piece is about 63 inches, so there should be no problems this time around.
• I had the experience of getting detained, patted down, and questioned by local law enforcement one night. After 10-15 minutes (where they presumably ran a background check on me), they openly admitted that I "didn't do anything wrong". I just happened to be looking through the window at a certain pet shop in a manner that appeared "suspicious". The officers involved were pretty professional about it, and I supposed it's good to know (as a taxpayer) that they are on the ball.
• I got a lovely piece of mail from the IRS today. Turns out that it was a 1040-ES form. Apparently since I owed so much in taxes last year, this is their way of saying "you should really pay some of that earlier". Fun.
• I made my travel plans to attend Conclave in October. Conclave is a predominantly science fiction convention in Michigan, but they are trying to get furries to attend as well. In fact, one of their guests of honor this year is none other than unclekage. I do hope that I'll get to see other furs there.

  Conclave is also the "home" convention of the Dorsai Irregulars. So it'll be good to see them again too.

That's all the major news in my life for now.