default password

tvsskumar · 09-21-2004, 07:46 PM

hai frineds,
i am using redhat linux 9,i have one small doubt.whenever root create some user it will allocate default password for that user,what are this passwd,how we can find it?similarly,when we install db like postgresql,mysql the same is applicable.how we can find out this password.

Tinkster · 09-21-2004, 08:41 PM

I don't know of any distro that applies a default
password ... how do you create the users?

I can't say much for MySQL ... but PostgreSQL
by default doesn't use passwords. You can
add one later if you missed it during creation
by "alter user with encrypted password 'pick_your_password'"

Cheers,
Tink

CroMagnon · 09-21-2004, 08:48 PM

Usually these users are created with an invalid password field in the /etc/shadow file (i.e ! or *). This is to stop them being able to log in directly (it would be a security risk if they used a default password, and no-one wants to be prompted to enter passwords for all the different users created during an install).

If you want to set a password for these users you can, but it's probably better not to - what are you trying to accomplish? There may be a better way.