Changes

== Introduction ==

== Introduction ==

Credentials are the more widespread authentication system in the IT field nowadays. They consist of a pairing of a user name (login) and a secret password. Newer technologies promise to perform better identity checks for individuals and their privileges, but the login / password pair is still an easy and cheap solution to perform those checks. In view of the poor performances provided by the competition and of the resulting scarce adoption of alternative solutions, no change of scenario seem feasible in the foreseeable future. Credentials Achilles heel resides in '''weak passwords, easy to guess and consequently unsafe'''. The '''cracklib''' library is a tool meant to check password strength against a family of attacks known as "dictionary attacks" and to increase the security level of a Linux / UNIX system.  

Credentials are the more widespread authentication system in the IT field nowadays. They consist of a pairing of a user name (login) and a secret password. Newer technologies promise to perform better identity checks for individuals and their privileges, but the login / password pair is still an easy and cheap solution to perform those checks. In view of the poor performances provided by the competition and of the resulting scarce adoption of alternative solutions, no change of scenario seem feasible in the foreseeable future. Credentials Achilles heel resides in '''weak passwords, easy to guess and consequently unsafe'''. The '''cracklib''' library is a tool meant to check password strength against a family of attacks known as "dictionary attacks" and to increase the security level of a Linux / UNIX system.