freebsd and freeradius

[Chuck Swiger]

On Feb 17, 2009, at 10:44 AM, gahn wrote:
> No, there is no # in any lines of /etc/passwd.

Did you check /etc/master.passwd also?

> Btw, what is this "src/etc/master.passwd" for?

A line like:

# $FreeBSD: src/etc/master.passwd,v 1.40 2005/06/06 20:19:56 brooks  
Exp $

...indicates the CVS revision that the passwd file comes from.  It's  
mildly interesting when you run mergemaster -iU or the like to update  
to a newer version of the OS to pick up any default system accounts or  
changes which have been made.

If you're instead asking why there is a /etc/passwd versus  
master.passwd, the former is historically expected and is supposed to  
be world-readable, but the traditional practice of putting encrypted  
passwords in there made automated password cracking relatively  
feasible.  Various UNIXes responded to things like "John the Ripper"  
by creating a second password database which contained the encrypted  
passwords, called /etc/shadow in some places, or /etc/master.passwd on  
FreeBSD, and having that only readable by root.  The old /etc/passwd  
file would then have an "x" or "*" for the passwd field.

Regards,
-- 
-Chuck