note 81084 deleted from function.mt-rand by cmb

Note Submitter: William Leslie ---- Do not rely on the strength of any 'home-brewed' cryptographic algorithm, such as the one posted by dmoree at coker dot edu. Algorithms such as MD5 and SHA-1 have been the subject of intense academic research and have known security properties. While it is true that MD5 and SHA-1 are generally no longer recommended for use in new cryptosystems, there are newer algorithms such as SHA-256 that address the older algorithms' weaknesses. These newer algorithms have not received quite as much scrutiny as their older counterparts, but have still been studied much more carefully than your home-brewed algorithm, most likely. Dmoree at coker dot edu's concern about rainbow tables is best addressed by a properly applied salting technique. Every bit of 'salt' added to a cryptographic hash effectively extends the complexity of the password and thus the size of the rainbow table needed to crack it. Furthermore, wisely chosen password strength policies can mitigate such attacks.