Passwords on trusted system

[John Dvorchak]

I have just gotten 4 hpux 11.23 boxes that have to have "trusted" setup. I have never had to admin a trusted box before and I have all of the issues resolved except one. I have about 50 users that have to be added to these 4 boxes and would like to script it. Now adding them is a no brainer but I can't seem to script setting up a default password of my choice. When I run passwd User_name it askes for a :

Do you want (choose one letter only):
pronounceable passwords generated for you (g)
a string of letters generated (l) ?
to pick your passwords (p) ?

I don't want it to ask. I wonder if there is an undocumented switch that just lets me enter the password.

Or am I just approaching this in a clumsy way? Any suggestion?

[Dave Hutton · Accepted solution]

If you are doing it by hand, I thought you can use /sbin/passwd and it forces it.

Not the normal /usr/bin/passwd

[John Dvorchak]

Dave that does work. But I can't use /sbin/passwd -d username so I would have to probably have something like expect loaded script this. That still isn't a problem.

Now that I think of it, could I just add the users and somehow it would just ask for a password the first time or would I still have to give it a default password in any event.

[Dan Bolton]

Just tried this on our test "trusted" system.
# /usr/sbin/useradd testuser

then
# /bin/passwd -d testuser

and got:
You are not allowed to have a null password.

However:
# /sbin/passwd testuser
followed by 2 nulls ([enter][enter])
was accepted (when done as root).

"testuesr" was then prompted to set a password at first login.


Here is another (more dangerous?) thought:
Even though the passwords are encripted in the secure files (/tcb/files/auth/t/testuser for above example) a password can be "applied" by copying/pasting a pre-encrypted 'default' password with normal editing/scripting tools if you have root access. The syntax of the resulting file must be perfect - use at your own risk!

[John Dvorchak]

Dan I like you answer and testing. I wish I could give more than ten points for all the work you did.

I'll try it next week and see how it works.