When php is linked with openssl (specifically the -lcrypto library) crypt() fails to use the MD5 (12char $1$...$ salts) algorith and is only able to return DES crypted strings.

The configure command used to build php is:

PROG_SENDMAIL=/usr/local/sbin/sendmail \
CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/devel/gd/include \
          -I/usr/local/security/openssl/include \
          -I/usr/local/devel/zlib/include \
          -I/usr/local/devel/libpng/include \
          -I/usr/local/devel/gdbm/include" \
LIBS="-L/usr/local/devel/gd/lib \
      -L/usr/local/security/openssl/lib \
      -L/usr/local/devel/zlib/lib \
      -L/usr/local/devel/libpng/lib \
      -L/usr/local/devel/gdbm/lib \
      -L/usr/local/support/flex/lib" \
  ./configure \
    --prefix=/usr/local/services/apache-1.3.14 \
    --with-config-file-path=/usr/local/services/apache-1.3.14/conf \
    --with-apache=../apache-1.3.14 \
    --with-gnu-ld \
    --with-exec-dir=/usr/local/services/apache-1.3.14/exec \
    --with-mysql=/usr/local/services/mysql \
    --with-imap=/usr/local/devel/c-client \
    --with-gdbm=/usr/local/devel/gdbm \
    --with-zlib=/usr/local/devel/zlib \
    --with-gd=/usr/local/devel/gd \
    --with-jpeg-dir=/usr/local/devel/jpeg \
    --with-png-dir=/usr/local/devel/libpng \
    --with-zlib-dir=/usr/local/devel/zlib \
    --with-gettext=/usr/local/devel/gettext \
    --with-ldap=/usr/local/services/openldap \
    --with-imap-ssl \
    --enable-sockets \
    --enable-ftp \
    --enable-trans-sid \
    --enable-track-vars \
    --enable-url-includes

Removing -L.../openssl/lib and -I.../openssl/include allows for MD5 crypted strings.