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Date:      Wed, 13 May 1998 17:16:27 +0000 (GMT)
From:      "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@u.washington.edu>
To:        Heinrich Langos <heinrich@zaphod.wh9.tu-dresden.de>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: renaming of usernames and homedirectories
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.980513170431.1478C-100000@s8-37-26.student.washington.edu>
In-Reply-To: <199805131953.VAA16206@zaphod.wh9.tu-dresden.de>

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On Wed, 13 May 1998, Heinrich Langos wrote:

>how do I rename a user in FreeBSD 2.2.5 on linux i just go and change his
>name in /etc/passwd and maybe even in /etc/shadowpasswd and thats it.

Use 'vipw' to maintain the passwd databases and their shadows
simultaneously.

>but in Freebsd the name is also saved in that non-human-readable database
>files. :-( 
>is there any use in that except for security by obscurity? (which history
>has shown doesn't work anyway) and how do i get around it ?

Yes there is use in using shadow passwd databases.  Are you saying that
cracking DES is trivial? (Not a dictionary attack on user passwords, but
the cipher itself.)

To get around it just don't even install DES or the like to begin with.
I don't recommend it. Security is a puzzle. You don't want to give away
any pieces if you can help it.

Keeping passwords in the clear certainly is not recommended.

>another problem is that i can't change a users home directory. if i change
>it to something different and log in i'm sent to "/". changing the password
>of that user overwrites my changes that i made to /etc/passwd and
>/etc/master.passwd and replaces the home directory entry with the old one.

Again 'vipw'
To change a password use the 'passwd' command.

>last but not least ... is there a way to search the old digests of the

You can search the archives. The link is under documentation at
www.freebsd.org.

Thank you,       | Try some of this. It will show you where you're at.
Jason Wells	 | http://www.freebsd.org/


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