HP-UX username

[harmt01]

Can the username be longer than 8 characters and if so how is this done?

[Robert_Jewell]

A quick search on "username length" in the forums gave me this among others:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x70b8cf38d6bdd5118ff10090279cd0f9,00.html

It basically recommends that you dont do this, but if you really want to then apply patch: PHCO_26089 (11.00)

Resolution:
libpam_unix.1 now checks for the existence of a file
in the "/etc/default" directory called:
"I_ACCEPT_RESPONSIBILITY_FOR_BYPASSING_SECURITY_CHECKS".
If this file exists, then login names longer than 8
characters can be added to /etc/passwd, and then those
users can login. Note the following restrictions:
1) HP has never claimed that HP-UX supports user names
longer than 8 characters, and does not recommend that
customers bypass the existing length checks. Doing
so may cause functional and/or security problems.
2) This patch does not remove the existing user name
length checks from other commands - e.g. pwck(1m),
sam(1m), useradd(1m).
3) Do not enable long usernames on trusted system
configurations.


-Bob

[John Poff]

Hi,

You can do it with the patch mentioned by Bob, but it really isn't recommended. There are so many things in Unix that can break with longer usernames it just isn't worth it.

I'm curious. Why do you want to use more than 8 characters? The only case I've seen for it is when you are using Samba, and that problem is solved by using the user name map which lets you map long user names back to regular Unix accounts.

JP

[T G Manikandan]

It is not recommended to create username more than 8 characters.
Might sit in a situation where you could face problems later.




DocId:
KBRC00003778

Updated:
10/10/01 1:46:00 PM


PROBLEM


Cannot create user names (in /etc/passwd), which has more than 8
characters.

For example - I cannot create a user "oracleadm" in /etc/passwd
file. I CAN create users with maximum 8 characters.




RESOLUTION



There is an eight character limit on user logins on HP-UX 11.0,
however there is a patch that you can install on your system to
address this issue. This is patch PHCO_21833.

The PAM libraries intentionally reject login names which
are longer than 8 characters. This behavior is changed from
10.20. Some customers want a way to bypass this restriction.

Resolution:

libpam_unix.1 now checks for the existence of a file
in the "/etc/default" directory called:

"I_ACCEPT_RESPONSIBILITY_FOR_BYPASSING_SECURITY_CHECKS".

If this file exists, then login names longer than 8
characters can be added to /etc/passwd, and then those
users can login. Note the following restrictions:

1) HP has never claimed that HP-UX supports user names
longer than 8 characters, and does not recommend that
customers bypass the existing length checks. Doing
so may cause functional and/or security problems.

2) This patch does not remove the existing user name
length checks from other commands - e.g. pwck(1m),
sam(1m), useradd(1m).
3) Do not enable long usernames on trusted system
configurations.

[Darren Prior]

Hi,

In addition to the good answers above, another reason why you might wish to have long usernames could be for email addresses. In this situation you should consider aliases.

Think very seriously before attempting to implement long usernames - it's not a good thing to do!

regards,

Darren.