MD5 proposal

In message <3CA1F83A.80802 at ripe.net>, Andrei Robachevsky writes:

>My main concern here would be that basing the proposed method on an 
>implementation (md5-crypt), which may change or may be mixed with some 
>other implementation, rather than on the documented algorithm (md5 
>hash), which cannot, may cause confusion in the future.

The implementation will not change, it would screw all cisco router
enable passwords and most FreeBSD passwords.

>And, as a side question from a person far from cryptography, is it a 
>proved fact that iterative complexity of md5-crypt makes the hash better?

It makes dictionary attacks harder and more timeconsuming, it also
makes it harder to do hardware implementations because you need
many times more hardware.

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