Re: help: passwd file

[Peter Ajamian]

Andy Nuss wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to figure out how to create entries
> in the passwd file.  Somewhere a few days
> ago I saw the hash-algorithm posted on the net,
> but can't find it now.
> 
> Does anyone know this doc?  Or is there a script
> that has been written?

Try the CVSPwd2 program available at http://www.pajamian.dhs.org

> Note: I can't seem to find the answer on my Linux 7.2
> system,

There is no such thing as a Linux 7.2 system.  The latest stable release
of Linux is 2.4.x, The latest stable distribution of RedHat Linux is 7.1,
I don't know what the numbering scheme is of other distributions.

> as I don't know the "salt" used by both
> Linux and by CVS.

The salt is simply any two characters from the set [A-Za-z./] as
documented in the crypt(3) man page.  It is used as a sort of encryption
key against the password to generate an encrypted password (yes I know
that the password itself is actually the "key").  CVSPwd2 generates a
random two character salt for each password it generates.

Regards, Peter