Hi, I probably should have explained myself a little better. :) The purpose of the password changing is for a Samba lab. I didn't realize at first that I had to edit the smb.conf to allow smaller smb passwords. and I believe that when a user changes their smbpasswd, the passwd command that gets invoked from smb.conf is run as root and therefore their unix password can be whatever.
I agree with you in *not* having whimpy small passwords on linux. However, I have one lab where there are students from grade 7 and younger. Some of them can't even spell their name.(The real young ones) So, I end up using usernames and passwords with only 3 characters. However, in some of the high schools, I definetly must use good security to maintain the labs. Some of these kids now adays are pretty sneaky. I like the idea of your pwgen. I shall look into this more. Thanks Mike Quoting "Karsten M. Self" <kmself@ix.netcom.com>: > on Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 12:52:06PM -0700, Mike Egglestone > ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > Is there a way to setup "passwd" so that when a user goes to change > > their password, it can be as short as they want and as simple as they > > want? > > Yes. > > However, it's very strongly discouraged. > > This question belongs to the class of those to which I suggest the > poster research the issue on their own such that they gain a further > understanding of the reasons why such actions are deprecated. > > I'd suggest instead a longer password coded as a passphrase, which can > often provide both better security and be more memorable than a simple > random password. > > On my own systems I use pwgen to generate strings, generally 10-12 > characters in length, e.g.: > > $ pwgen -acn 12 10 > Dohziedai7li vei5zaiHaice chu5Deepeemi Huashaix5jie Keeghahgair0 > Yaht6wahpumo choo3muhieSh Ree7hoohiecu thiRaengie2y ro4Lahnaesoa > > Peace. > > -- > Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> > http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ > What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? Home of the > brave > http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ Land of the > free > Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA! > http://www.freesklyarov.org > Geek for Hire > http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html >
