Re: [Exim] Final Peer Review Sought: "Spam Filtering for MXs…

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Author: Tony Finch
Date:  
To: Tor Slettnes
CC: Exim Users' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Exim] Final Peer Review Sought: "Spam Filtering for MXs" HOWTO
On Mon, 12 Jul 2004, Tor Slettnes wrote:
>
> I still have to say that I don't completely agree. For someone to be
> able to deduct your SECRET from a "${hash_N:SECRET=<string>}" (where N
> is smaller than the length of "SECRET=<string>"), they would need:
> - samples of several different signatures - in other words - they
> would have to solicit or gather mail that you sent to several different
> recipients.
> - a pretty good understanding of Exim's ${hash..} function


They don't need to deduce the secret itself, just something that allows
them to forge a hash. Exim's hash function is very very easy to forge. In
particular note that each character of the input string only affects one
character of the output in a very simple manner, whereas in a
cryptographic hash each bit of the input will affect about 50% of the
entire output in a very complicated manner.

Tony.
--
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