NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/hackers/1994

Text File | 1993-01-28 | 1.8 KB | 39 lines

Newsgroups: alt.hackers
Path: sparky!uunet!super!adamfox
From: [e-mail] (Adam Fox)
Subject: Re: masked entries in password file
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: adamfox@homer (Adam Fox)
Nntp-Posting-Host: homer
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center, Bowie, MD  USA
References:  <[e-mail]>
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 23:34:19 GMT
Approved: Of course it is, you foolish mortal
Lines: 24

In article <[e-mail]>, Biff writes:
|>     Hello,
|>           A simple question that I'm sure someone out there can answer...
|> Some systems have only a '*' in the encrypted password field, I think this
|> is because they have an echoed password system or something like that.....
|> I think there's a port you have to connect to locally to query for the
|> encrypted password or something like that to get a higher security rating
|> for the entire system..... Could some one please explain this to the net
|> (interest only). I am quite curious as to how this works and I can't be
|> bothered to muck around with the ports an shit if someone already knows
|> how it works and what the general protocol is....
|>  Cheers......

They probably have either a shadow password file somewhere that only root
can see (some root-owned process checks the authentication) or they are running
kerberos which authenticates in its own way through a server and secure protocol.
I'm mostly familiar with Suns/BSD-type machines so your version of UNIX may
vary.  On Suns, those are the 2 main alternatives to using a world readable
password file with encrypted strings.  Perhaps you can hack a kerberos server,
but without knowing how kerberos really works, you will probably have trouble
doing it, I understand is is not trivial (unless you know the holes, of course).

-- Adam Fox
[e-mail]