PAP and clear text

[Chuck Slate]

Hi All.

I have a few freeRADIUS newbie questions for you.

I have always read and been told that PAP is insecure because it
transmits passwords in clear text. However, If I sniff the communication
between my NAS and server when PAP is used, the password is indeed
obfuscated. It appears to be hashed.

So my questions are:
1) First and foremost, am I interpreting this correctly?
2) If so, is it the shared secret defined in the clients.conf file that
is used as a key for the hash?
3) If not, any clue as to what I am seeing, and in that case, what is
the shared secret used for?

As you can see, I am looking for some basic info about the flow of the
connection.  I have taken an honest shot at RTFM, but have not come
across these details yet.  Can someone please explain or point me to an
explanation?

Thanks in advance.





Chuck