add users with a standard password

dranach · 02-07-2010, 04:06 PM

I have to add my students as a user to a class-server to have them work on some TCP/IP-related questions. The server is Debian Lenny.

It would be easy if I could make some kind of script to add them, even with a standard password like 'abc123'. I want to show them the way FTP uses clear-text passwords as opposed to SFTP. Or the differences between telnet and ssh.

I know something about scripting with bash, but how can I add the same standard password to each user, without having to type it for everyone?

Thanks,
Toni

jschiwal · 02-07-2010, 05:20 PM

One way could be to add one student with that password, and then create the lines to add to /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow.

Code:

~> cat students
john
sally
pete
chuck
charly
simon

paste -d: students <(seq 1001 1006) <(seq 1001 1006) | 
sed 's/^\([[:alpha:]][[:alpha:]]*\):\([[:digit:]]*:[[:digit:]]*\)$/\1:\2:\1:\/home\/\1:\/bin\/bash/' >students_passwd
john:1001:1001:john:/home/john:/bin/bash
sally:1002:1002:sally:/home/sally:/bin/bash
pete:1003:1003:pete:/home/pete:/bin/bash
chuck:1004:1004:chuck:/home/chuck:/bin/bash
charly:1005:1005:charly:/home/charly:/bin/bash
simon:1006:1006:simon:/home/simon:/bin/bash

Then in an editor, insert students_passwd into the /etc/passwd file. Using the "vipw" program you would type the vim command :r student_passwd

Code:

sed 's#.*#&:$2a$10$abcdefghlghalaslladklfjalkfalskf:14597:0:99999:7:::#' students >students_shadow

In this sed command, everything after s#.*#&: except for the last # is copied from the sample entry.

Make sure you make copies of the original /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow.