From: support@mcs.anl.gov (Support)
Subject: Announcing ANLpasswd
Organization: Math & Computer Science Divison, ANL
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1993 18:58:15 GMT

	   Announcing "ANLpasswd" (formally perl-passwd2).
  
While other programs check for bad passwords after the fact, it is
important to have good passwords at all times, not just after the
latest Crack run.  To this end we have modified Larry Wall's Perl
password program and added; 

	"ypsmarts", so that it does the intelligent thing in an NIS
	environment,

	it allows for gecos changes, and also

	checks a sorted list of all the "bad passwords".

The list of bad passwords are ALL the words that Crack will generate,
given all the dictionaries that we could get our hands on (107 MB of
unique words, so far). The combination of improvements has turned
publicly available code into a powerful tool that can aid sites in the
maintenance of local security.

We have presented this code at SURF 92 and SUG 92.  It has also been
referenced in _Unix Review_.

We have been using it for a year now and haven't had any major
problems.  I know that a couple other sites are also using it.  It
currently runs on: Sun, IBM, NeXT, SGI, Intel iPSC860, Alliant,
Encore, BBN TC200, Solbourne, Sequent.

Also if you enter a reasonable email address to our not-so-anonymous
ftp server, we will notify you of any updates.

It can be anonymous ftp'd from:

	info.mcs.anl.gov

You'll find the whole package in:

	/pub/systems/anlpasswd-2.0.tar.Z


If you find it useful, please let us know.  Also please let us know of
any improvements you may add.


--Mark
Mark Henderson					Building 203  Room C-250
Manager, Advanced Computing 			9700 South Cass Avenue
Argonne National Laboratory			Argonne, Illinois 60439
                            Support@mcs.anl.gov    
