1makekey(1) User Commands makekey(1)
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6 makekey - generate encryption key
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9 /usr/lib/makekey
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13 makekey improves the usefulness of encryption schemes that depend on a
14 key by increasing the amount of time required to search the key space.
15 It attempts to read 8 bytes for its key (the first eight input bytes),
16 then it attempts to read 2 bytes for its salt (the last two input
17 bytes). The output depends on the input in a way intended to be diffi‐
18 cult to compute (that is, to require a substantial fraction of a sec‐
19 ond).
20 The first eight input bytes (the input key) can be arbitrary ASCII
23 characters. The last two (the salt) are best chosen from the set of
24 digits, ., /, upper- and lower-case letters. The salt characters are
25 repeated as the first two characters of the output. The remaining 11
26 output characters are chosen from the same set as the salt and consti‐
27 tute the output key.
28 The transformation performed is essentially the following: the salt is
31 used to select one of 4,096 cryptographic machines all based on the
32 National Bureau of Standards DES algorithm, but broken in 4,096 differ‐
33 ent ways. Using the input key as key, a constant string is fed into the
34 machine and recirculated a number of times. The 64 bits that come out
35 are distributed into the 66 output key bits in the result.
36 makekey is intended for programs that perform encryption. Usually, its
39 input and output will be pipes.
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42 ed(1), vi(1), passwd(4)
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45 makekey can produce different results depending upon whether the input
46 is typed at the terminal or redirected from a file.
47SunOS 5.11 3 Mar 2008 makekey(1)