On Mon, Oct 25, 2004 at 10:36:16AM +0000, Miquel van Smoorenburg wrote: > In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > Micha Feigin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >Where is the key used to decrypt the passwords (shadow) files stored? > >I want to reinstall an old redhat system with debian, but I wish to > >preserve old users and passwords to ease the transition process. > > You can't decrypt passwords - because they are not crypted at all. > The algorithm is just a one-way hash. > > When you login, the password you enter is simply encrypted (one-way- > hashed, really) again and compared with the one in the shadow file. > The password in the shadow file is never decrypted as such. > > Why not simply copy the relevant parts of the password and shadow > files over, why do you want to decrypt first ? >
I wasn't looking to decrypt first. Since the passwords are hashed (I thought encrypted, but it doesn't matter much for this purpose). I want to take the password files from the old installation and drop them into the new one in such a way that the users can use their old passwords. I thought that there is a key somewhere that is used for comparing the inserted password with the entered one which I need to backup also. >From what I gather from this thread I just need to take the password(-) group(-) and shadow(-) files and insert them instead of the old ones, nothing else needed, right? I don't really care what the actual passwords are (I have root access, so I can bypass them anyway), I just don't want to provide insecure temporary passwords and pass them by email to the users. Thanks > Mike. > -- > "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes > a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell. > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > This Mail Was Scanned By Mail-seCure System > at the Tel-Aviv University CC. > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
