Two Questions I Need Answered Please.

Two Questions I Need Answered Please.

[Scott@Charter]

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In the /etc/shadow file how is the password
"$1$shGNybY9$L)J1gwitzN6LoeS0pMpNc/" encrypted?

In the /etc/shadow file how is the password "!za1aId0hfZ2IA" encrypted and
what significance does this password hold?


Thanks,
Scott
Reno, NV

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TEL;HOME;FAX:775-849-8412
ADR;HOME:;;3030 Chipmunk Dr.;Washoe Valley;Nevada;89704;US
LABEL;HOME;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:3030 Chipmunk Dr.=0D=0AWashoe Valley, Nevada 89704=0D=0AUS
EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:scott.smallsreed@mindspring.com
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Re: Two Questions I Need Answered Please.

[Glynn Clements]

Scott@Charter wrote:

> In the /etc/shadow file how is the password
> "$1$shGNybY9$L)J1gwitzN6LoeS0pMpNc/" encrypted?

Passwords aren't encrypted, but hashed. The distinction is that there
isn't any way to decrypt the data in the shadow file to obtain the
actual password. The password which is entered by the user is
concatenated with the salt and the result is then hashed. The hash is
compared against the one from the shadow (or passwd) file.

In the above, "$1$" indicates that the entry is hashed using MD5 (as
opposed to the traditional DES hash), "shGNybY9" is the salt, and
"L)J1gwitzN6LoeS0pMpNc/" is the base64-encoded hash (an MD5 hash is a
128-bit value).

Although, the glibc documentation (which concurs with my /etc/shadow
file) says that the base64 encoding uses A-Z, a-z, 0-9 plus "/"
(slash) and "." (period); no mention of ")".

> In the /etc/shadow file how is the password "!za1aId0hfZ2IA" encrypted and
> what significance does this password hold?

That is a DES hashed password, where "za" is the salt and
"1aId0hfZ2IA" is the base64-encoded DES hash (DES hashes are 64 bits,
although only 56 bits are significant). The leading "!" indicates that
the account is locked (it also ensures that any attempt to validate a
password will fail, regardless of the actual password which is
entered).

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn.clements@virgin.net>