Comments on: Understanding /etc/passwd File Format

By: vivek kandath

vivek kandath — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:55:43 +0000

i don’t understand what is the setting s -bit and t- bit ??????
why it is relevant???

By: Raj

Raj — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:27:48 +0000

Excellent work dude…. Thanks..

By: SARDAR GHULAM HAIDER KHAN NAWABI

SARDAR GHULAM HAIDER KHAN NAWABI — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:55:15 +0000

i say just thanks to every user of linux to every teacher of linux to every lover of linux
please send easy note easy commands of linux to me i will be pray for u are
just send good and easy way to improve my linux knowledge

By: DG12

DG12 — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:35:00 +0000

ABDUL AWAL: Assuming you are referring to the above:
“#6 Home directory: The absolute path to the directory the user will be in when they log in….”
I seems unwise to use a relative path in the /etc/passwd file.

By: DG12

DG12 — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:31:44 +0000

ABDUL AWAL: Pease read paragraph “Your password is stored in /etc/shadow file”

By: ABDUL AWAL

ABDUL AWAL — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:38:27 +0000

an example of absolute pathname is shown as: /home/student/myprogs while a relative pathname can be shown as : ../../documents what are differences between absolute and relative pathname and what is advantages.

By: ABDUL AWAL

ABDUL AWAL — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:35:23 +0000

can u explain how the /etc/shadow and /etc/passwd directories are used in the authentication process?why are they two files used instead of one?how can i convert a system to use the /etc//shadow file to the store password?

thanks

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:25:10 +0000

My hosting company expects me to SSH using password authentication (rather than key) . I have edited ssh_config and sshd_config to switch passwordauthentication to yes, but do I need somehow to get the password into the shadow file – the server response does not even prompt me for a password – it just refuses the connect attempt.

By: DG12

DG12 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:58:50 +0000

Notice that the command to change your password is
-r-sr-xr-x 1 root wheel 70352 Jun 18 22:39 /usr/bin/passwd
Owned by root and the s in the permissions is the SETUID bit.
This means that, when you run this program, your User ID is set to root,
and since root is the owner of the /etc/passwd you can update it!
The same it true of:
at, atq, atrm, batch, chfn, chpass, chsh, crontab, cu, ipcs, login,
lppasswd, newgrp, quota, rlogin, rsh, su, sudo, top, uucp,
uuname, uustat, uux

By: shrik

shrik — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:21:21 +0000

I have a question about the /etc/passwd file:

Usually a normal user do not have direct permission to write in a passwd/shadow file.

Though when user changes his passsword then ultimately he is altering the /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow file.

What is the mechanism behind this?