Restoring usernames & passwords to a protected directory under Debian & Plesk CP
 

Hi

I have a Debian Sarge 3.1 server , don't know if its the right place to ask here but here you go.

The HDD crashed a week ago.

I had some password protected directory with 100+ users that had access to that folder with a username and a password.

Somehow, I've managed to save that file that contains the usernames and passwords , can't remember where I took it from then but I've used WinSCP to browse the server.

Now I got the file , the server is back with the same structure but I don't know where to put the file back so the users can keep their old usernames and passwords.

Any tips ?

By the way , to protect that directory , I did that from Plesk Control Panel , and the users and passwords have been added from the same control panel

Were these login accounts and passwords? On Linux systems, accounts are defined in /etc/passwd and the password hashes are stored in /etc/shadow (and you really need to read "man 5 passwd" and "man 5 shadow" before attempting to midfy either of these files directly). Plaintext passwords are not stored anywhere on the system. If you have a plaintext password you can generate the password hash using the "openssl passwd" command.

Again, this assumes that these users and regular Unix system users. However your message is really vague on this point (how were these users logging in? Did they have to enter a separate password to access the protected directory?). I know zero about Plesk so you probably ought to consult its documentation to figure out exactly what it configured and how before attempting anything. To be very safe, you probably just want to re-install Plesk and re-create all the users by hand using the same method you used originally.

There are usernames and passwords in that file that have access only to one folder, no other ftp/ssh access.I'll try to find some hints in Plesk Manual