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Questions tagged [passwd]

53 questions
83
votes
4 answers

Does the root account always have UID/GID 0?

On all the Linux systems I've managed, the root account has a GID and UID of 0. Is this guaranteed, or is it possible that the system will give root a different ID?
Tanaki
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48
votes
9 answers

Cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later

With several commands in Linux, I get the error: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later. Does anybody know how to solve it? Also I don't get in my /etc/shadow directory.
Steaphann
31
votes
4 answers

Login with SSH user that has no password set

I have a user without a password set (i.e. passwd -d). I would not like to use public keys on this setup. Is there a way to SSH login to such a user?
user53335
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29
votes
3 answers

What's all those users in the /etc/passwd file?

The /etc/passwd is supposed to have a line for every user on the system. Amongst the common username and root there is a bunch of other users. Some examples: timidity:x:114:127:TiMidity++ MIDI sequencer…
Pithikos
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24
votes
4 answers

Random password generator: many, in columns, on command line, in Linux

A while back, I came across a random password generator for the command line that displayed a grid of "memorable" passwords. Output was something like this: adam@host:~$ CantRememberThisCommand lkajsdf aksjdfl kqwrupo qwerpoi qwerklw …
Annika Backstrom
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7
votes
3 answers

If I use SSH with public keys, is it subject to the password expiration of my user account?

So if I'm using SSH with public/private keys to connect to a Unix box, and the password for my user account on that box expires, will I still be able to connect?
Fraggle
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7
votes
3 answers

Trying to change a Ubuntu user's password, authentication token manipulation error

I'm trying to create a local user on a new Ubuntu box. I'm unable to change the password, and I keep getting the error below. The user gets added to the shadow file, but I can't get it to set a password. How can this be fixed? admin@theserver:~$…
beagleguy
5
votes
2 answers

Prevent linux user from changing their password in ssh

How can I prevent users from changing their passwords? I still want to be able to change the passwords as root if necessary but keep the user from changing their password.
Vreality
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4
votes
1 answer

Instead /bin/bash as a shell, /bin/passwd in /etc/passwd file

I'm a Unix support Admin and I have a rare situation here. I have a recently adopted an environment that has a user with a /bin/passwd binary as a shell. xxx:x:1:100:xx:/home/xx:/bin/passwd Anyone have a clue about what is this for? Does this have…
rjdsantos
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4
votes
1 answer

Renamed root in /etc/passwd and now sudo does not work

I accidentally modified the line for root in /etc/passwd and changed its named. To fix it I tried using sudo to modify this file, but it does not let me sudo because sudo can't find the root user since I renamed it. II am on ubuntu.
aafc
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4
votes
2 answers

Reset user passwd when you don't know it

I have a small problem. I have shared keys setup on my domain, so I never type my password to login anymore. I've forgotten my password now. This is a problem because only my user can sudo. Password authentication for root has been disabled, so…
warren
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3
votes
3 answers

openSSH is ignoring the HOME env variable

I've been trying to sort out the Could not create directory issue with openSSH installed via cygwin, and have tried every solution I can find on the internet, but none of them are working... I've installed cygwin, it appears to work. I installed…
will
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3
votes
1 answer

how to share Linux user passwords and Samba passwords

I have set up a Linux system with its own user account administration. It is not part of any domain (other than DNS). Now I want to allow its users to mount their home directories on a Windows system. One way of doing this is by keeping two user…
reinierpost
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3
votes
2 answers

How to restore the /etc/passwd file?

I was doing some experiment about resource-accessing. By mistake, I executed this command, $ sudo mv /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.bak Then I could not execute any command with privilege(eg. sudo mv /etc/passwd.bak /etc/passwd). When I shut the system…
dutor
2
votes
1 answer

how to add a SMB (samba) password for a user in Debian, when there is no smbpasswd binary?

I have samba installed on a Debian server of mine, and I use libpam-smbpass to keep UNIX and SMB passwords in sync. Passwords are only changed from unix logins via shell at the moment. However, just now I added a new user and gave it a password. The…
Nakedible
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