Shell Programming and Scripting

I was using crypt command to mask and unmask my password in the script in Linux.

But, I don't find crypt on SunOS mymac 5.10 Generic_150400-26 sun4v sparc sun4v

Thus, my script fails.

Is there a generic / more common command tool / script across Linux and Unix (most / all flavors) that I can use across different OS whichout have to change the Masking / Unmasking code in my script when moving between different systems?

Please suggest.

crypt() in unistd.h is supposed to be part of the C library standard and the command crypt does exist for Solaris:
https://www.unix.com/man-page/opensolaris/1/crypt/
The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2016 Edition

I've not had your problem on Solaris 9, 10, or 11.

Could something be wonky with the PATH variable? Solaris does have an oddity path-wise - the /usr/xpg4/bin - /usr/bin deal where really old versions of something like awk exist in /usr/bin and newer versions of commands in /usr/x???/bin

Try this

Code:

find /usr/bin /usr/xpg?/bin /usr/ucb  -type f -name crypt

So, something is wonky somewhere, probably on your environment side - as a guess.
crypt has been on every UNIX and UNIX-like system I have seen.

The crypt() function is required by the POSIX Standard (and is there so passwords can be encrypted). But that is a one-way operation. You can use crypt() to encrypt your password and you can use crypt() to encode a user-entered password guess and then use strcmp() to see if the two encrypted strings match.

There is also the encrypt() function (which is in the current standards) and the crypt utility (which is not in the current standards), which are capable of encoding and decoding text. But, US government regulations prohibit exporting that code to many other countries. So while a Solaris system shipped by Oracle to a US customer might contain the crypt utility and the encrypt() function, a corresponding Solaris system sent to China, Iran, or Russia (and maybe any other country outside the US borders) would get a an encrypt() function in libc that always fails and returns with errno set to ENOTSUP when asked to decode encrypted text (and maybe also when asked to encode text). I no idea whether systems Oracle ships with the reduced capability encrypt() are shipped with a non-functioning crypt utility or if it is dropped from the distribution completely.

Sorry, I don't find crypt on Linux.

Code:

bash-3.2$ find /usr/bin /usr/xpg?/bin /usr/ucb  -type f -name crypt
find: /usr/xpg?: No such file or directory
find: /usr/ucb: No such file or directory
bash-3.2$ uname -a
Linux mymac 2.6.18-410.el5 #1 SMP Fri Apr 8 05:48:52 EDT 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Thus, my question remains ...Is there a generic command for masking passwords that works on most Unix / Linux systems.

I tried the below but i don't find them on most systems.

Code:

crypt
base64
openssl

Please suggest.

Hi,
Maybe with perl one liner - see perldoc -f crypt (if perl works on your all Unix / Linux systems).
Regards.

I hate to state the obvious but: care to extemporate on the fact that Linux is not Solaris and vice versa?

What's more, Linux is not POSIX, so there might be a crypt() function built into its system library, but there is no guarantee for that. Any POSIX-compliant UNIX, though, has to have this function, as Don Cragun and Jim McNamara have pointed out.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

Is this not a flawed project in any case? If the code is written to en/decrypt, then anyone reading the code can decrypt, so your security is lost.

What external key do you have to validate the user? A one-way encryption and user entry would be better.

If you are looking to store a password for use connecting to another system for a process to be performed or data transferred, you would probably be better investigating SSH keys.


Can you tell us more about the purpose of the code?



Robin