Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 15:31:29 GMT From: Cliff Sarginson <cliff@raggedclown.net> To: "DINKEY,GENE (HP-Loveland,ex1)" <gene_dinkey@hp.com>, "'Cliff Sarginson'" <cliff@raggedclown.net>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: UID at login time Message-ID: <E14OiBN-0002XO-00@post.mail.nl.demon.net>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> > This is not the reason for the existance of master.passwd. > > It is is security feature, not a backup procedure. > > This is an implementation of shadow passwords. The real > > ecnrypted passwords are kept in the master.passwd file, which > > is only readable by root. > > The passwd file is world readable (it has to be) but should > > not contain > > the encrypted passwords in order to prevent brute force > > crackign attempts > > > That may be the case but either way you cannot (in most instances) edit > /etc/passwd directly and expect it to do what you want. AFAIK the only > "acceptable" method of modifying /etc/passwd is through vipw. As I > mentioned earlier - this is to ensure that /etc/passwd and > /etc/master.passwd are in sync. Errm. yes.. what I say doesn't contradict what you say..it just broadens the explanation out a bit.. Cliff To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?E14OiBN-0002XO-00>