Questions about the file /etc/passwd. Contents, manipulation and recovery.
Questions tagged [passwd-file]
43 questions
35
votes
2 answers
Why is everybody so concerned about etc/passwd?
Here is the content of my vagrant machine of this particular…
funguy
- 493
25
votes
6 answers
Personal computer hacked: How do I block this user from logging in again? How do I find out how they are logging in?
I am 99.9% sure that my system on my personal computer has been infiltrated. Allow me to first give my reasoning so the situation will be clear:
Rough timeline of suspicious activity and subsequent actions taken:
4-26 23:00
I ended all programs and…
Rosemary S
- 313
22
votes
5 answers
I deleted the "/etc/passwd" file and cannot log in
I was trying to change my username and also my home directory (/home/username) and my system started to crash. I deleted the passwd file but I had a backup named passwd_bkp. I tried to rename this passwd_bkp as passwd and it did not work. No…
14
votes
3 answers
Why is there a shell given to user for PostgreSQL?
cat /etc/passwd |grep postgre
postgres:x:115:127:PostgreSQL administrator,,,:/var/lib/postgresql:/bin/bash
apt-cache show postgresql
Package: postgresql
Priority: optional
Section: database
Installed-Size: 65
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers…
Smile.Hunter
- 8,705
11
votes
3 answers
How to add user without useradd command?
Is it possible to add a user in ubuntu linux without useradd command I think its possible by adding the entries in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow but i don't know the exact steps to do it and the user should get its home directory and bash shell too.
Vishwanath Dalvi
- 1,417
7
votes
1 answer
Trusting non human users
When looking into /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow I found many non human users. I read a bit about it and know what they do (as a group, though specifically I see many I have no clue about). All of them (excluding root (locked pwd) and my human user…
Jesper
- 95
6
votes
1 answer
Unable to change user password in Ubuntu 12.10
The User Password is not changing for some reason.
In the terminal it says password updated successfully,
$ sudo passwd
[sudo] password for zaigham:
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
But…
Laphanga
- 317
6
votes
1 answer
Who is debian-tor in my /etc/passwd file?
I have found this entry in /etc/passwd:
debian-tor:x:117:123::/var/lib/tor:/bin/false
But there is no /var/lib/tor folder. This is on a server not a desktop.
fndtn357
- 163
- 5
6
votes
1 answer
Where is the username and password stored?
Just for my curiosity, where is the username and associated password stored in Ubuntu? And how it is verified at the login time?
Tachyons
- 17,455
6
votes
1 answer
Replacement for non-interactive "chpasswd -e"?
On older Debian machines one could issue something like:
echo ':*'|chpasswd -e
in order to change the password field of the user () to *.
Now I am aware of
passwd -d && passwd -l
to achieve a similar…
0xC0000022L
- 5,870
5
votes
2 answers
sudo useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later (no lock files)
When doing this on Ubuntu server 14.04:
camilstaps@localhost:~$ sudo useradd --home-dir /var/www/xxx.camilstaps.nl/ --no-create-home --root /var/www/xxx.camilstaps.nl/ --shell /bin/sh xxx
I'm getting the error:
useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try…
user125111
4
votes
3 answers
How to recover a deleted /etc/passwd file?
I deleted the /etc/passwd file and cannot login now. I don't know the root password and tried lots of passwords, but none of them worked.
How can I fix this?
Eren
- 51
4
votes
1 answer
useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later
Trying to add a user:
useradd -c "test" -d /home/bbbbbbbb -e "01-jan-2013"
-f 10 -g admin -p secretfgjdhdgd -s /bin/bash -u 123456 blobblob
but getting:
useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.
Michael Durrant
- 11,076
3
votes
3 answers
How to change my UID back in passwd file?
My OS is Ubuntu 12.10, and my account is called acgtyrant, and its UID is 1000. For the need of researching, I changed my UID from 1000 to 1010 in /etc/passwd, and then I found my files' master changed to a number:1000, which prove my suppose. But…
acgtyrant
- 185
2
votes
1 answer
Postfix+Dovecot Unix user authentication
I want to set up a mailserver with postfix+dovecot+roundcubemail. And I don't want virtual users. Is it possible to use Unix users and somehow just include the /etc/passwd file for authentication/login?
The background is that I have several services…
Reallinx
- 61