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04-22-2006, 06:09 AM
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#1
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Member
Registered: Feb 2003
Distribution: Redhat 9.0
Posts: 104
Rep:
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revealing user's pasword
hi,
as an administrator, we could reset users password, but could we discover the pasword?
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04-22-2006, 06:22 AM
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#2
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Member
Registered: Sep 2005
Location: Old Blighty
Distribution: Slackware, NetBSD
Posts: 536
Rep:
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Only by using brute force cracking (that's the whole point of passwords!). Or, you could hypnotise your users to help them remember... 
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04-22-2006, 06:25 AM
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#3
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Senior Member
Registered: May 2004
Location: Australia
Distribution: Gentoo
Posts: 3,545
Rep:
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The short answer is no.
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04-22-2006, 09:42 PM
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#4
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LQ Veteran
Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Boise, ID
Distribution: Mint
Posts: 6,642
Rep:
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Out of curiosity, why are you trying to accomplish this?
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04-24-2006, 12:56 AM
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#5
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Member
Registered: Feb 2003
Distribution: Redhat 9.0
Posts: 104
Original Poster
Rep:
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just want to know how the system works. is this means that an administrator could not log in as a user without knowing his password or resetting his password.
lest say if the password could be brute force, how it could be done, there is nothing in "passwd" file.
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04-24-2006, 01:19 AM
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#6
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LQ Veteran
Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Boise, ID
Distribution: Mint
Posts: 6,642
Rep:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wincrk
lest say if the password could be brute force, how it could be done,
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Any password can be broken by brute force. Brute force simply means that every single possible combination of characters that could be used in a password will be tested. If we assume that a password is 10 characters long, and that there are 128 ASCII characters that could be used in the password, then there are 10^128 possible combinations to test using brute force.
If you are attempting to eavesdrop on users without their knowledge, that would be considered cracking, and would not be welcome on the LQ forums
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04-24-2006, 02:22 AM
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#7
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Senior Member
Registered: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,755
Rep:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wincrk
is this means that an administrator could not log in as a user without knowing his password or resetting his password.
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No. root can always "su" to any user without password
Quote:
Originally Posted by wincrk
there is nothing in "passwd" file.
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the password hashes are stored in the /etc/shadow file instead
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04-24-2006, 05:17 AM
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#8
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Senior Member
Registered: Apr 2005
Location: London
Distribution: Arch - Latest
Posts: 1,522
Rep:
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What an odd post, that being said all i have to do is ask users for their password, despite teling them not to give it me....
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04-24-2006, 05:55 AM
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#9
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Moderator
Registered: Feb 2004
Location: Outside Paris
Distribution: Solaris 11.4, Oracle Linux, Mint, Debian/WSL
Posts: 9,793
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Unix users should never give their password to anyone, even an administrator, as root doesn't need it to impersonate as any user anyway.
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04-24-2006, 06:58 AM
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#10
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Senior Member
Registered: May 2004
Location: Australia
Distribution: Gentoo
Posts: 3,545
Rep:
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Stoked this dude doesn't admin any computers I work on...
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04-24-2006, 08:01 AM
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#11
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Senior Member
Registered: Apr 2005
Location: London
Distribution: Arch - Latest
Posts: 1,522
Rep:
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These machiens i am on are running VNC server but the service is screwed and doesn't start, shame really, they might learn some things here
But no, you should not be trying to access users accounts without their permission, i don't even know the standing on this (whether the account is considered company property, or whether it's protected by privacy laws). If my employer tried that, they'd be in trouble
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04-24-2006, 10:22 AM
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#12
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Senior Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: California
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 1,181
Rep:
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Something to remember: if you 'su' into another user as root, the actions you perform will all have timestamps, but there will be no record of the user logging in, which is always suspicious.
I agree with cs-cam
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04-24-2006, 04:04 PM
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#13
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Moderator
Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Kent, England
Distribution: Debian Testing
Posts: 19,192
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Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux-Security and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.
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