UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Ok my brother lost his password for his computer and i was wondering if im telnet'd to his computer and it prompts me for a user name and password what commands could i use to retrieve his password for him? like where would i have to go to get to his username/password? is there a general place that i could go to get that information or would i have to do it some other way?

If my question is "inappropriate" for the message board please let me know and i will know not to post questions like that again. I just realized a moderator might see my question in a different view that it was posted. Sorry again if this is inappropriate just let me know Thanks

Look at /etc/passwd

$ cat /etc/passwd

If you can su to the root account then you could reset his password.

(yes, it could be seen as an attempt at hacking, but I didn't take it that way - although I did answer in a way that won't do much for a hacker (a hacker would already know to look at /etc/passwd))

Ok when i type that what will the line with the password look like cause im seeing lines like
nobody:*:-2:-2:Unprivileged user:/:/usr/bin/false
and i dont understand anything in that line.
Im confused please help?

nobody:*:-2:-2:Unprivileged user:/:/usr/bin/false

Username:*:user id:group id:Comment:home directory:shell to login with

* means the password is actually in another file - it's impossible to read the file to actually find out what the password is for an account.

So look for an account with your brother's name in either the username or Comment fields. That would be the account you would want to reset the password on.