Change Password Hash Algorithm
 

I am running Slackware 10.1 on a server.

Is there a way that I can change the algorithm used to hash user passwords? By default it is MD5, and I would like to make it more secure by changing it to SHA-1 or SHA-256.

Is there a way to do this, and if so how is it done?

Thank you for any help.

You could change it, but be aware that many scripts/programmes only know how MD5 or crypt algorithms, so you may have to change them as well.

If everything uses pam for password access, change the specific pam module to another algorithm.
By default pam uses /etc/pam.d/login which uses /etc/pam.d/system-auth
The algorithm can be selected in the system-auth file..

Good Luck! ;)