From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Feb 2 0: 8:25 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from post.mail.nl.demon.net (post-11.mail.nl.demon.net [194.159.73.21]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 73A9E37B4EC for ; Fri, 2 Feb 2001 00:08:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from [195.11.243.26] (helo=Debug) by post.mail.nl.demon.net with smtp (Exim 3.14 #4) id 14ObGI-000AJS-00; Fri, 02 Feb 2001 08:08:06 +0000 To: "gerald stoller" , gene_dinkey@hp.com, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG From: Cliff Sarginson Subject: RE: UID at login time Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 08:08:06 GMT X-Mailer: www.webmail.nl.demon.net X-Sender: postmaster@btvs.demon.nl X-Originating-IP: 192.250.25.251 Message-Id: Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > > > >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 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. 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 on user passwords. Hence "vipw". Cliff To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message