DISCUSSION [NIST SP 800-171 R2]

Cryptographically-protected passwords use salted one-way cryptographic hashes of passwords.

See NIST Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines.

FURTHER DISCUSSION

All passwords must be cryptographically protected using a one-way function for storage and transmission. This type of protection changes passwords into another form, or a hashed password. A one-way transformation makes it theoretically impossible to turn the hashed password back into the original password, but inadequate complexity (IA.L2-3.5.7) may still facilitate offline cracking of hashes.

Example

You are responsible for managing passwords for your organization. You protect all passwords with a one-way transformation, or hashing, before storing them. Passwords are never transmitted across a network unencrypted [a,b].

Potential Considerations

Are passwords prevented from being stored in reversible encryption form in any company systems [a]? 43

Are passwords stored as one-way hashes constructed from passwords [a]? 44

Copyright

Copyright 2020, 2021 Carnegie Mellon University and The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory LLC.

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This material is based upon work funded and supported by the Department of Defense under Contract No. FA8702-15-D-0002 with Carnegie Mellon University for the operation of the Software Engineering Institute, a federally funded research and development center, and under Contract No. HQ0034-13-D-0003 and Contract No. N00024-13-D-6400 with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory LLC, a University Affiliated Research Center.

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