encrypt and decrypt password in .profile

manish72 · 07-27-2011, 06:36 AM

Hi ,

how do i encrypt & decrypt password in a file for secuiry reason ? is there any shell scripts available to do the same?

OS : aix 5.3

Regards,
Raghu

chrism01 · 07-27-2011, 06:57 PM

Usually with passwds in eg /etc/shadow, they are hashed using eg md5sum (& a 'salt')and the hash is stored. Then when someone attempts to login, the system hashes the input with the salt and checks to see if the result is the same as the stored hash.
The passwd is never actually un-hashed/de-crypted.

HTH
PS I'm assuming AIX uses /etc/shadow; if not try /etc/passwd

manish72 · 07-28-2011, 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrism01

Usually with passwds in eg /etc/shadow, they are hashed using eg md5sum (& a 'salt')and the hash is stored. Then when someone attempts to login, the system hashes the input with the salt and checks to see if the result is the same as the stored hash.
The passwd is never actually un-hashed/de-crypted.

HTH
PS I'm assuming AIX uses /etc/shadow; if not try /etc/passwd

Thanks for you reply . Actually my question was i have a file ( .profile ) in home directory(shared account) which had hardcoded password in a variable;i want to encrypt the password in .profile so that the user will not be knowing the password.

Regards,
Raghu

chrism01 · 07-28-2011, 08:25 PM

Given you are on AIX, you could try https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ypt_%28Unix%29, although I'm not sure how strong it would be as per the article.
Best to read the man page for crypt on your system.

Alternatives may include gpg http://linux.die.net/man/1/gpg, openssl http://linux.die.net/man/1/openssl, but they may not be installed.
Best guess is to read the man page for crypt and to look at the bottom where it may reference other related tools/cmds.
Also, try to google 'AIX encrypt' or similar.