[plug] Redhat passwords - max 8 chars!?

[David Griffiths]

>Something i noticed a while ago.
>
>All my passwords are at least 9 chars long, and i made a typo on the 10th
>char one day, and redhat(6.1) let me in.
>
>So after a bit of testing i found that at least the redhat distro ingnores
>everything but the first 8 chars of a password.
>
>Is this the same across all distros? I tested this on freeBSD and it
>rejects me..
>
>and why would this be?
>
>Thanks
>
>Carl

Carl this is a limitation of the old style unix password encryption.

If you run authconfig (with recent versions of Red Hat) it will give you
the option of using MD5 encryption which allows many more characters (can't
recall of hand how many).

It also gives you the option of using shadow passwords which are a good
idea, and will convert the password file for you transparently.

cheers,

Dave



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  David Griffiths                             griffith at environ.wa.gov.au

  Air Quality Management Branch
  Department of Environmental Protection          Phone:   61 8 9222 7151

  Westralia Square                                Fax  :   61 8 9321 5184
  141 St Georges Tce
  Perth 6000
  Western Australia
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