Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!gatech!bloom-beacon!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!ptsfa!ihnp4!homxb!mhuxt!mhuxm!mhuxo!ulysses!sfmag!sfsup!mpl From: mpl@sfsup.UUCP (M.P.Lindner) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: Passwords in /etc/group Message-ID: <1682@sfsup.UUCP> Date: Thu, 23-Jul-87 19:00:34 EDT Article-I.D.: sfsup.1682 Posted: Thu Jul 23 19:00:34 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jul-87 12:58:18 EDT References: <5740010@hpfcdc.HP.COM> <207@macom1.UUCP> <3671@cisunx.UUCP> <462@unisoft.UUCP> Organization: AT&T-IS, Summit N.J. USA Lines: 29 Summary: Sys V has makekey In article <462@unisoft.UUCP>, greywolf@unisoft.UUCP (The Grey Wolf @ ext 165) writes: : In article <2812@ncoast.UUCP> allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) writes: : >As quoted from <3671@cisunx.UUCP> by nk233514@cisunx.UUCP (Deus): : >+--------------- : >| In article <207@macom1.UUCP> michael@macom1.UUCP (Michael Mullins) writes: : >| >Once the password is assigned, I "vi /etc/passwd" and yank the password : >| One thing I'd like to pas along i to use vipw, not vi, to edit the passwd : >| file. : >+--------------- : > : >BSD has "vipw". Sys3, SysV, Xenix, etc. DON'T. (Someone want to come up : >with a PD version? --mailed to security@rutgers rather than posted, perhaps. : >It does decrypt passwords, I believe?) : : -------- : : I don't know of a routine that decrypts passwords, as such a routine would : be considered dangerous to system security. : : All vipw does is provide a locking mechanism of a very primitive : nature so that nobody can run a passwd/chfn/chsh while vipw is in effect. : The same is true of each of those programs...if one is writing to the passwd : file, another will print the message "progname: passwd temp file busy." I may be coming into this discussion late, but if you're lloking for a way to get an encrypted password to put into /ect/group (which is what it sounds like the original poster had in mind, System V users can use "/usr/lib/makekey". It's in the manual. It takes a password and makes the ugly 14 character string out of it that you normally see in between the ::'s in /etc/passwd-like files.