From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Jul 16 16:10:27 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA08667 for questions-outgoing; Tue, 16 Jul 1996 16:10:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: from pegasus.rutgers.edu (pegasus.rutgers.edu [128.6.10.45]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id QAA08654 for ; Tue, 16 Jul 1996 16:10:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: from wasteland (radon-asy-5.rutgers.edu [128.6.53.36]) by pegasus.rutgers.edu (8.6.12+bestmx+oldruq+newsunq/8.5) with SMTP id TAA27801; Tue, 16 Jul 1996 19:10:08 -0400 Message-Id: <2.2.32.19960717031112.002cb818@pegasus.rutgers.edu> X-Sender: paradox@pegasus.rutgers.edu (Unverified) X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 2.2 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 23:11:12 -0400 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Red Barchetta Subject: master.passwd vs. shadow? Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk I have been a UNIX user for about 2 years now, but I just recently installed FreeBSD on my own system. I do quite a bit of work on Sparcs, so I am familiar with the concept of a shadowed passwd file, and it appears to me that the FreeBSD system, which keeps the "meaningful" passwords in master.passwd and makes it readable only to root. Can someone explain to me just how this is implemented? It seems to be done by default, which shadowing usually isn't, so I am curious as to the differences between the two. I can't seem to find this covered in the FAQ, and the Handbook security section doesn't even mention master.passwd (unless I need new glasses ;) ) It probably would have been better to post this to the security list, but I figured it might be considered "common knowledge" there. Thanks for the info! Ernie Pistor