password file permisions

[radi_1]

Hi,
I have a very urgent situation,
I have 2 servers sharing apllication data.
Server A reads from server B.
On server B ,the root p.w has been changed ,then the old one was recovered and root login is ok.
soon afterwards, application users informed me that the application had stoped running on their pc's(some display error or application conection error,am not sure exactly).
My concern is has this something to do with changing p.w on B .
What is the default passwd file permissions?
On a stand alone server ,I checked it to be 444,on server B it is also 444
Is it possible in the case of related application servers the permission is different say 664?or,does changing password effects file permission. is it just a bloody coincedent that the application has gone bad soon before or after changing root password?
Note;
I did not change /etc/passwd file permissions to e.g 664 befor I check with u guys.
regards.

[Jose Mosquera · Accepted solution]

Hi,

By default you must guarantee that the file will be readable.

In my case passwd file have 444 permission.

Rgds.

[Fabrizio_10]

In my case too.

Br,
Fab

[Geoff Wild]

/etc/passwd should be 444 and usualy root:root

Sounds like a coincident - unless for some odd reason, the application has the (shudder) root password hard coded?


Rgds...Geoff

[radi_1]

Hi Goeff,
2 things.
1. what u mean root:root for p.w file? the file is owned by root naturally.
2.If the p.w is hard coded,then its the responsibility of application manager,am I correct? or do we hp-ux poeple can do somthing about it?

[Bharat Katkar]

Hi there,
Just a guess,
Did you by mistake changed or given any password to ftp user that may be your application is using. I doubt the same.
And if not then that was an unfortunate coincidence.
1. check for all ftp users
2. Check /etc/ftpd/ftpusers file if any users used by the application are present there. If yes remove them immediatley.
3. ReAssign the original password to ftp users (Used by the Application internally) again.
4. Try running the Application.

This is all with assumptions that your application is using ftp to receive/transmit data.

Hope that helps.
Regards,
Regards,

[Jose Mosquera]

Hi again,

Have you loose your password file and then have proceeded to recover it? Is this your case, some service could be had down.

Rgds.

[Geoff Wild]

Yes - I meant owner/group should be root:root

# ll /etc/passwd
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 10587 May 26 13:17 /etc/passwd

As far as application - it should NOT require root password...you will have to check application logs to get more information as to why it won't start.

Rgds...Geoff

[radi_1]

Hi everybody,
Thanks for your replies,it was a damn coincedent and I guess Murphie's rule was applied then.It just happens to me,I can't explain it.Anyway the application is back on and running,the problem was in the application.
Points are assigned.