Master Key Generation from Master Password
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I'm sure this topic has been discussed before but I was unable to search the for it with a meaningful number of results.
A series of articles in a recent issue of the German computer magazine c't about state-of-the-art password cracking tools and techniques has prompted me for this question: what is the method used to derive the master key for the psafe3 database from the master password?
If an attacker gets a psafe3 database into his hands, the effort needed to crack the master password is highly dependent on the key derivation method. If a method such as PBKDF2 or bcrypt is used, the cracking process can be a million times or more slower than if only a simple hash algorithm such as SHA1 or SHA-512 is used.
For me, this question is of particular interest since I'm not only using PasswordSafe on the PC but also the Pwsafe app on my iPad and I need to keep the psafe3 database in my Dropbox.
Regards,
Ulrich
This is defined in the format specification document. We're using an equivalent of PBKDF2 with SHA-256 and a configurable number of iterations, currently set at 2048.
For details, see https://sourceforge.net/p/passwordsafe/code/5212/tree/trunk/pwsafe/pwsafe/docs/formatV3.txt
Section 2.3, and http://www.schneier.com/paper-low-entropy.pdf.
Rony, thanks for the information. Very reassuring.