Observed arrival · 2026-11-07
The *ssh hole: when a failed password check looked like a match
A sourced, illustrated explainer traces a security flaw involving OpenSSH, musl Linux, and passwords longer than 256 bytes.
○Open
⊠Login
$Paid
†Ads
✦Pretty
●Pro
◎Niche
◉Human
⚑Risk
ƒJS
- For
- OpenSSH administrators on musl-based Linux systems
- Worth noticing
- The timeline links musl's 2012 choice of `*` on crypt failure to a 256-byte password limit and later OpenSSH behavior.
Field notes
The account is built around a sequence of linked historical artifacts rather than an unsupported summary: a 1980 `/etc/passwd` example, the 1997 `crypt()` specification, musl commits from 2012, and later OpenSSH and Alpine records. The page also includes controls labeled for 256- and 300-character inputs. Its extracted text stops while describing a later fix, so the final state is not visible here.
Observed signals
Read the marks
Editorial observations of this landing page, not a rating.
○OpenPublic substance visible
✦PrettyNotable craft visible
●ProPolished or operationally mature
◎NicheUnusually specific use
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