11-19-2005
That's right. You need access to the encrypted password in order to verify that the user typed in a password that matches it. What did you expect? Do you think that su can verify that you typed in the root password without looked at the encrypted password? Well, here's a clue..su obtains the encrypted string and verifies the entered password using exactly this method.
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PASSWD(5) File Formats and Conversions PASSWD(5)
NAME
passwd - the password file
DESCRIPTION
/etc/passwd contains one line for each user account, with seven fields delimited by colons (":"). These fields are:
o login name
o optional encrypted password
o numerical user ID
o numerical group ID
o user name or comment field
o user home directory
o optional user command interpreter
The encrypted password field may be blank, in which case no password is required to authenticate as the specified login name. However, some
applications which read the /etc/passwd file may decide not to permit any access at all if the password field is blank. If the password
field is a lower-case "x", then the encrypted password is actually stored in the shadow(5) file instead; there must be a corresponding line
in the /etc/shadow file, or else the user account is invalid. If the password field is any other string, then it will be treated as an
encrypted password, as specified by crypt(3).
The comment field is used by various system utilities, such as finger(1).
The home directory field provides the name of the initial working directory. The login program uses this information to set the value of
the $HOME environmental variable.
The command interpreter field provides the name of the user's command language interpreter, or the name of the initial program to execute.
The login program uses this information to set the value of the $SHELL environmental variable. If this field is empty, it defaults to the
value /bin/sh.
FILES
/etc/passwd
User account information.
/etc/shadow
optional encrypted password file
/etc/passwd-
Backup file for /etc/passwd.
Note that this file is used by the tools of the shadow toolsuite, but not by all user and password management tools.
SEE ALSO
crypt(3), getent(1), getpwnam(3), login(1), passwd(1), pwck(8), pwconv(8), pwunconv(8), shadow(5), su(1), sulogin(8).
File Formats and Conversions 06/24/2011 PASSWD(5)