This is the base class for a system of objects that encapsulate passphrases. An object of this type is a passphrase recogniser: its job is to recognise whether an offered passphrase is the right one. For security, such passphrase recognisers usually do not themselves know the passphrase they are looking for; they can merely recognise it when they see it. There are many schemes in use to achieve this effect, and the intent of this class is to provide a consistent interface to them all, hiding the details. The CPAN package Authen::Passphrase contains implementations of several specific passphrase schemes in addition to the base class. WWW: http://search.cpan.org/dist/Authen-Passphrase/