on Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 04:04:51PM -0700, Mike Egglestone ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > Quoting "Karsten M. Self" <[email protected]>: > > > 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.
<...>
> > On my own systems I use pwgen to generate strings, generally 10-12
> > characters in length, e.g.:
> 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.
Ugh. Samba....
> 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.
>
Hmm...that's probably acceptable. But consider you've got the option to
get some kids off to good security practices.
I'd look at a bunch of word chosen from a dictionary. Things like
"rabbitsilly" or "carrothouse". Not strictly searchable in a dictionary
attack. Fairly memorable, in their own strange way, likely more so than
an arbitrary four-character string. I don't know of a tool to generate
same, but suspect they're out there or could be ginned up easily.
> I like the idea of your pwgen. I shall look into this more.
$ apt-cache show pwgen
$ apt-get install pwgen
Peace.
--
Karsten M. Self <[email protected]> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
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