LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Adam Hawes <adam.hawes@flinders.edu.au>
  To  : Andrew Galdes <AGaldes@elders.com.au>
        David Lloyd <dlloyd@microbits.com.au>
  Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 13:24:37 +0930

Re: Linux knows too much

> > It doesn't store it in clear text. It most likely takes the
> > password you've
> > entered, uses crypt or md5sum to encrypt it and then compares

Ok, to change your password, you need to enter your current password as well, 
do you not?  It seems like a simple case of you give it your current 
cleartext password and it verifies it to make sure you are really you.  Then 
you give it a new password (also cleartext) and it checks it against your 
original password (which you had to tell it anyway) to make sure they are not 
similar (read: the same).

If they are too close you have to try again.  If they are different it hashes 
up the new password and overwrites the password file entry for you.

Adam

-- 
Adam Hawes
Ph.D Student
School of Engineering
Flinders University

ICQ:    2492016
Email:  adam.hawes@flinders.edu.au
Mobile: 0402 854 965

http://users.esc.net.au/~ahawes/bcc.html

-- 
LinuxSA WWW: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/ IRC: #linuxsa on irc.freenode.net
To unsubscribe from the LinuxSA list:
  mail linuxsa-request@linuxsa.org.au with "unsubscribe" as the subject