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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
+<!--Converted with LaTeX2HTML 96.1-h (September 30, 1996) by Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk), CBLU, University of Leeds -->
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+<TITLE>/etc/passwd and other informative files</TITLE>
+<META NAME="description" CONTENT="/etc/passwd and other informative files">
+<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="sag">
+<META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document">
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+ <A NAME="tex2html1440" HREF="node90.html"><IMG WIDTH=37 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="./next_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1438" HREF="node88.html"><IMG WIDTH=26 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="./up_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1432" HREF="node88.html"><IMG WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="./previous_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1442" HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="./contents_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1443" HREF="node114.html"><IMG WIDTH=43 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="index" SRC="./index_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
+<B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html1441" HREF="node90.html">Picking numeric user and </A>
+<B>Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html1439" HREF="node88.html">Creating a user</A>
+<B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html1433" HREF="node88.html">Creating a user</A>
+<BR> <P>
+<A NAME="2828">&#160;</A><H2><A NAME="SECTION001021000000000000000"><tt>/etc/passwd</tt> and other informative files</A></H2>
+<P>
+ The basic user database in a Unix system is the text
+ file, <tt>/etc/passwd</tt><A NAME="2830">&#160;</A> (called the <b>password
+ file</b>), which lists all valid usernames and their
+ associated information. The file has one line per
+ username, and is divided into seven colon-delimited
+ fields:
+ <OL>
+<LI> Username.
+<LI> Password, in an encrypted form.
+<LI> Numeric user id.
+<LI> Numeric group id.
+<LI> Full name or other description of account.
+<LI> Home directory.
+<LI> Login shell (program to run at login).
+ </OL>
+ The format is explained in more detail in <em>passwd</em><A NAME="2833">&#160;</A>(5).
+<P>
+ Any user on the system may read the password file, so that
+ they can, for example, learn the name of another user.
+ This means that the password (the second field) is also
+ available to everyone. The password file encrypts the
+ password, so in theory there is no problem. However, the
+ encryption is breakable, especially if the password is weak
+ (e.g., it is short or it can be found in a dictionary).
+ Therefore it is not a good idea to have the password in
+ the password file.
+<P>
+ Many Linux systems have <b>shadow passwords</b>. This is
+ an alternative way of storing the password: the encrypted
+ password is stored in a separate file, <tt>/etc/shadow</tt><A NAME="2836">&#160;</A>,
+ which only <tt>root</tt> can read. The <tt>/etc/passwd</tt><A NAME="2838">&#160;</A>
+ file only contains a special marker in the second field.
+ Any program that needs to verify a user is setuid, and
+ can therefore access the shadow password file. Normal
+ programs, which only use the other fields in the password
+ file, can't get at the password.<A NAME="tex2html42" HREF="footnode.html#2816"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="gif" SRC="./foot_motif.gif"></A>
+<P>
+<BR> <HR>
+<P><ADDRESS>
+<I>Lars Wirzenius <BR>
+Sat Nov 15 02:32:11 EET 1997</I>
+</ADDRESS>
+</BODY>
+</HTML>