Crypt (Unix) - Command Filter crypt(1)

Command Filter crypt(1)

crypt(1) is a simple command to encrypt or decrypt data. Usually this is used as a filter, and it has traditionally been implemented using an algorithm based on the Enigma machine. It is considered to be far too cryptographically weak to provide any security against brute force attacks by modern, commodity personal computers.

Some versions of Unix shipped with an even weaker version of the crypt(1) command in order to comply with contemporaneous laws and regulations, which limited the exportation of cryptographic software (for example by classifying them as munitions). Some of these were simply implementations of the Caesar cipher (effectively no more secure than ROT13, which is implemented as a Caesar cipher with a well known key).

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