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Special Forums Cybersecurity How to reset root password of old Unix System V Post 302262924 by 82026 on Saturday 29th of November 2008 02:55:08 PM
Old 11-29-2008
How to reset root password of old Unix System V

Hi all,

This is first time I met unix in my life. I purchased old Scanning Elecron Microscope which came with 486/33MHz PC running Unix System V, ver. 3.6. The one simple user name/passw is known so I can boot and login. But can not shutdown! It asks root or su passw. I'm very sensitive not to destroy any configuration. As advised on this foum I found /etc/passwd file but inside is only 'x' in places of passwords - means they are in shadow file. I found it however I was not allowed even to look in to it.
My idea is such - to boot from floppy, take this shadow file and then try to use JtR cracker. Or take out HDD, put on another Unix machine and copy or look in to shadow file then.
Can somebody advise - would it work to go this way?
- would all configuration and startup information survive if I would access HDD booted not from it?
- can somebody recomend where to download light bootable floppy version of suitable for me Unix?
 

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pwconv(1M)						  System Administration Commands						pwconv(1M)

NAME
pwconv - installs and updates /etc/shadow with information from /etc/passwd SYNOPSIS
pwconv DESCRIPTION
The pwconv command creates and updates /etc/shadow with information from /etc/passwd. pwconv relies on a special value of 'x' in the password field of /etc/passwd. This value of 'x' indicates that the password for the user is already in /etc/shadow and should not be modified. If the /etc/shadow file does not exist, this command will create /etc/shadow with information from /etc/passwd. The command populates /etc/shadow with the user's login name, password, and password aging information. If password aging information does not exist in /etc/passwd for a given user, none will be added to /etc/shadow. However, the last changed information will always be updated. If the /etc/shadow file does exist, the following tasks will be performed: Entries that are in the /etc/passwd file and not in the /etc/shadow file will be added to the /etc/shadow file. Entries that are in the /etc/shadow file and not in the /etc/passwd file will be removed from /etc/shadow. Password attributes (for example, password and aging information) that exist in an /etc/passwd entry will be moved to the correspond- ing entry in /etc/shadow. The pwconv command can only be used by the super-user. FILES
/etc/opasswd /etc/oshadow /etc/passwd /etc/shadow ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWcsu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
passwd(1), passmgmt(1M), usermod(1M), passwd(4), attributes(5) DIAGNOSTICS
pwconv exits with one of the following values: 0 SUCCESS. 1 Permission denied. 2 Invalid command syntax. 3 Unexpected failure. Conversion not done. 4 Unexpected failure. Password file(s) missing. 5 Password file(s) busy. Try again later. 6 Bad entry in /etc/shadow file. SunOS 5.11 9 Mar 1993 pwconv(1M)
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