Here’s a concise, technically accurate report on – its security, weaknesses, and appropriate usage.
Recognizing the obsolescence of MD5, Cisco introduced Type 4 (SHA-256, which was later deprecated due to implementation flaws) and Type 8 and Type 9. Type 8 utilizes PBKDF2 with SHA-256, and Type 9 uses the Scrypt algorithm. These modern methods are intentionally designed to be slow and resource-intensive. They employ "key stretching," forcing a computer to use significant processing power to generate a single hash. This effectively neutralizes the brute-force efficiency that makes Type 5 vulnerable. While a GPU might guess billions of Type 5 hashes per second, it may only manage a few thousand Type 8 or Type 9 hashes. cisco password decrypt type 5