Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2001 02:38:21 -0500 From: "gerald stoller" <gerald_stoller@hotmail.com> To: gene_dinkey@hp.com, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: UID at login time Message-ID: <F43ENQ5Umx2yg9Tka6s00003067@hotmail.com>
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>From: "DINKEY,GENE (HP-Loveland,ex1)" To: "'gerald stoller'" ,
>freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: UID at login time Date: Thu, 1
>Feb 2001 16:41:31 -0700
>
> > -----Original Message----- > From: gerald stoller
>[mailto:gerald_stoller@hotmail.com] > Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001
>2:32 PM > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: UID at login time
>
> > I went into /etc/passwd and changed my UID there from 1000 to 1001
>
>
>When you did this did you just vi /etc/passwd or did you use vipw? If
>editing the passwd file by hand vipw should be used so master.passwd gets
>updated properly.
>
>Gene gder@gder.net
I used vi /etc/passwd ; after seeing 'vipw' in your email, I recall
seeing it mentioned in my reading about FreeBSD , and I thought it was just
a safety feature at the time (e.g., it wouldn't let you modift the password
field). I have since used vipw and the problem is gone. Thanks for your
help.
This system (of having both master.passwd & passwd ) is not the
right way to provide a safeguard, IMHO. Yes, have a backup file to passwd
, but use it only for backup. passwd would be readable by everybody but
writeable only by root . A cron job could compare the two files on a
regular basis, and email to root when they differ, root would then check
the differences, and if they are not destabilizing (e.g., someone changed
their login shell ), would copy passwd onto its backup copy. For a more
robust system (which I believe to be necessary only to reassure users, and
could be dropped after they feel comfortable), one could keep a month-long
history of these backup files, so that if a change was made and accepted,
and later a user notices a change in operation due to a change (he believes)
in his entry in passwd , older copies of his entry can be found and checked
(and used to reassure him).
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