No /etc/shadow file found - why is '*' present

[lauren palmaccio]

No /etc/shadow file found - Need to figure out why is '*' present in the etc/passwd file for some accounts. I thought passwords value for defualt accounts set to '*' implies they are shadow passwords.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Lauren:

> No /etc/shadow file found - Need to figure out why is '*' present in the etc/passwd file for some accounts. I thought passwords value for defualt accounts set to '*' implies they are shadow passwords.

No, you are confused. The "*" indicates a passwordless account. A 'x' in th password field of '/etc/passwd' indicates that password information is to be found in '/etc/shadow'.

If you don't have an '/etc/shadow' file then you haven't converted to one (including loading additional software on 11.11).

Regards!

...JRF...

[Duncan Edmonstone]

No, an 'x' in the password field of /etc/passwd means you are using /etc/shadow

A '*' implies that the system mya be running in trusted mode, in which case passwords are in various files under /tcb

If you have a set of populated directories under /tcb, you are running your system in trusted mode.

What version of the OS is this?

HTH

Duncan

[Duncan Edmonstone]

I missed JRFs point and he missed mine!

So a '*' could signify that no login is allowed for that account _OR_ if you have /tcb it could signify a trusted system...

HTH

Duncan

[lauren palmaccio]

Version 11.11

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Shadow password file is not standard on HP-UX as they are on Linux.

http://software.hp.com

Search for Shadow or shadow password.

You can download and install this feature on HP-UX systems.

SEP

[OldSchool · Accepted solution]

As Duncan noted:

a "*" can indicate one of two things:

for an "untrusted" system, that account exists, but you can't login using it. You'd see that on some of the default system accounts, and in some cases (depends on how the admin did it) on "old" user accounts or accounts they "locked" by editting the password file.

on trusted systems, if I recall, ALL the passwords would be "*" and there would be /tcb directory with the associated database(s)

Shadow password, if set up/enabled, would have "x" in all password fields and the /etc/shadow file would be present.

It sounds like the first case may apply here......

[Paul Ettema]

Hi Lauren,

use 'passwd -s ' to check status user
PS means there is a paaasw
LK means locked
NO meand no password

Paul.