This article comes about because of a recent thread on the security-basics mailing list regarding password crackers. Akin to this topic are the passwords themselves. The average user has a mildly uncomplicated password; generally not even a combination of upper and lower case characters or even any numbers. The fact of the matter is that passwords are an important piece of the security puzzle. More times than not, the average user is the one that you are working for.

Linux Security