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Date:      Fri, 03 Mar 2000 09:07:19 -0800
From:      Eric Rescorla <ekr@rtfm.com>
To:        Kuzak <kuzak@kuzak.net>
Cc:        freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Password Length 
Message-ID:  <200003031707.JAA37304@romeo.rtfm.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 03 Mar 2000 08:49:16 PST." <200003031700.e23H0Wp41410@alpha.dgweb.com> 

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> >Passwords are ASCII, so the total number of 8-byte 8^8=2^64.
> >
> >It should be obvious by inspection that 8^8 << 73!
> >Incidentally, the number of atoms in a glass of water
> >is on the order of 10^25 >> 8^8.
> I see it more like this...
> 
> 64^8... Assume 64 possible characters to choose from...
> 
> for the first char in the passwd you have 64 choices,
> for the second char in the passwd you have 64 choices,
> and so on 8 times..
> 
> So by the multiplication principal you will have a total
> of 64*64*64*64*64*64*64*64 or 64^8 possible permutations
> which is >> than 8^8  Though much less than 73!
Correct. I was totally on crack when I wrote 8^8. 

What I meant was (2^8)^8 == 256^8 == 2^64.

Nevertheless, 256 > 10^3, thus 256^8 < (10^3)^8
Since (10^3^8) = 10^24,

10^25 >> 2^64. 

I stand by the rest of my message.

-Ekr



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