Alcatel-Lucent 8950 AAA, User Manual

Page: 335 / 476

The SMT User Files Panel Creating and Managing User Profiles with Files
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
365-360-001R6.0
Issue 1, December 2008
19-7
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
SeCrEt
is not the same as
secret
.
4. As an option, you may hash the password for storage. Click the ... next to the password
field. Select an hash type from the list that appears, as shown in Figure 19-8 .
Important!
We use the term “hash” instead of “encryption” because the process of
hashing cannot be reversed. By definition, something that can be encrypted can also be
decrypted. For authentication checking of hashed passwords, 8950 AAA takes the
password entered by the user and hashes it using the exact same calculation that was
used to hash the password in the user profile.
If the two resulting hashes match, then the two passwords must have been the same.
Note that use of hashed passwords in a user’s profile requires the use of the PAP
(Password Authentication Protocol) in the PPP session. CHAP (Challenge Handshake
Authentication Protocol) cannot be used with hashed password in the user profile.
Figure 19-8 User Profile Dialog–Password hash Type
The plain text password is replaced by the encrypted password. For example, if you
enter “MySecretPassword” and select MD5 encryption, the Password field now
contains something like:
$MD5$3XzCR7LP$fJ7/npaleWkxnfWQjWidiO
Important!
The results will be different each time you perform the hash. Do not
attempt to hash a password that has already been hashed. The resulting value is
unusable and the hash process cannot be undone.
5. As an option, specify the Authentication Type from the drop-down list, as shown in
Figure 19-9 .
Select encrypt type