From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Mar 22 23:12:26 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id XAA06070 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 22 Mar 1996 23:12:26 -0800 (PST) Received: from phaeton.artisoft.com (phaeton.Artisoft.COM [198.17.250.211]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id XAA06063 for ; Fri, 22 Mar 1996 23:12:25 -0800 (PST) Received: (from terry@localhost) by phaeton.artisoft.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id AAA05744; Sat, 23 Mar 1996 00:06:11 -0700 From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199603230706.AAA05744@phaeton.artisoft.com> Subject: Re: Passwords To: sysop@gaianet.net (Chad Shackley) Date: Sat, 23 Mar 1996 00:06:10 -0700 (MST) Cc: questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <199603230504.VAA28720@mercury.gaianet.net> from "Chad Shackley" at Mar 22, 96 09:03:39 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > I have a pretty simple question. How do I find out what someone's password > is? 1) Ask them "what is your password?". If they are critically stupid, go immediately to step 3b. 2) Log in as root and set it to a word you already know (like 'frog'; everyone knows that word...); then your problem is "how does someone find out that their password has been changed to 'frog'). 3a) You don't. That's the whole point of a password... they know it and you don't, so you can't pretend you are them. 3b) Pretending you are them is a crime called "wire fraud" in most of the US, and is a felony. Like robbing a 7-11. Be prepared to do time. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.