[H-GEN] I can't login - HELP!

[Martin Pool]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
[ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.          ]

Ben Carlyle wrote:

> The basic run-down on shadowed passwords is this:
> 
> /etc/passwd contains the following fields:
> username:something:uid:gid:long name:home:shell
> 
> Traditionally that something was the standard UNIX password
> encription.  The last two characters are the seed, 

No, the *first* two characters are the *salt*.  For example,
 
  perl -e "print crypt 'sixtynine', '69'"
  69svejaeR8Fzg
  ^^ look here

> But to summarise... shadowed password files are non-readable
> except by root, and contain the "real" passwords.  

Furthermore, shadowed passwords can use a secure hash of the password
and a much longer salt, rather than a DES hash of the password and a
12-bit salt.  Dictionary attacks are still possible, but it is not
feasible to precompute them.

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