Spurred on my the obvious problems with passwords, and embarrassing security incidents involving sniffed passwords, researchers and vendors have been working hard at fixing the problem. One of the more interesting solutions turns out to be free, and might soon be appearing on a computer near you. Secure Remote Password uses mathematical tricks to improve on the security passwords that we use. But first, let's take a look at other ways passwords are used on networks. Once upon a time, passwords made a lot of sense.
Passwords are cheap, easy to use, and the implementation easy to write.
Early password systems permitted timeshare users to enter their usernames and passwords, and log into the mainframe securely. And a select priesthood controlled the mainframes computers. Until the late 1970's, system engineers stored plaintext passwords in files, confident that no mere mortal could find the passwords or read them. As computer systems systems became more accessible, storing plaintext passwords became unfeasible, and the custom changed to one of storing password equivalents created by hashing the plaintext password and storing the hash. When you logged in, the password you entered was hashed, and the hash compared to the stored password equivalent.