Default password hash

[RW]

On Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:44:02 +0400
Lev Serebryakov wrote:

> Hello, Simon.
> You wrote 10 июня 2012 г., 14:02:50:
> 
> SLBN> Has anyone looked at how long the SHA512 password hashing
> SLBN> actually takes on modern computers?
>  Modern  computers  are  not what should you afraid. Modern GPUs are.
> And they are incredibly fast in calculation of MD5, SHA-1 and SHA-2.
> 
>  Modern key-derivation schemes must be RAM-heavy, not CPU-heavy.

They should be both, the point of scrypt is to optimize for normal
ratios of cpu power to memory.

>  And   I   don't   understand,   why  should  we  use  our  home-grown
> "strengthening" algorithms instead of "standard" choices: PBKDF2[1],
> bcrypt[2] and (my favorite) scrypt[3].

We already have bcrypt, it's called blowfish. 

I think what's needed is a self-tuning algorithm that tracks CPU time.
IMO geli's PKCS #5 implementation is obsolete because it's based on core
time.