Script to update password field

[Kong Kian Chay]

I have a file e.g idlist.txt which contains a list of login-names.

I would like to read idlist.txt and update the password field in /etc/passwd to a FIXED string e.g "abCdef".

Anybody knows how to do it ?

NOTE :
* The password field may contain "/" and "\". The script should be able to handle it. This is what stucks me.

[Joseph C. Denman]

I really do not know why you would want to do that????? The password field in /etc/passwd is encrypted. If you change it to abCdef, the user will not be able to log in. Why not just lock the accounts or remove the user???

But anyway, this is a way to do what you said you wanted???

for x in `cat idlist.txt'
do
var1=`cat /etc/passwd | grep ${x} | cut -f2 -d":"`
sed 's/${var1}/abCdef/' > /etc/passwd.out
mv /etc/passwd.out /etc/passwd
done

I would not do it though!!!!!!!

...jcd...

[Praveen Bezawada · Accepted solution]

Hi
If you really want to replace the passwd field with a fixed text you can do

awk -F: '{ print $1":""text"":"$3":"$4":"$5":"$6":"$7 }' /etc/passwd > /etc/passwd.tmp

All the best

..BPK...

[linuxfan]

Hi Kong,

Before you try anthing make sure you keep a copy of you password file and have another terminal session open.

Now you could use something like this,

for id in `cat idlist.txt`
do
pass=`pwget -n id | cut -f2 -d":"`
sed "s/$pass/abCdef/" /etc/passwd > /etc/passwd.new
done

The reason i did use grep is because it won't work if you have users called test1 test12 etc.

Once you have verified the new /etc/passwd.new
move it to the /etc/directory.
make sure the permissions are ok.

-HTH
I am RU

[Kong Kian Chay]

Joseph & Ramesh

The "sed" command will FAIL when the password field contains special char like "/".

However, the "awk" command is perfect.

[linuxfan]

Hi Kong,

change the sed line to the following

sed "s#$pass#abCdef#" /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.new

This should work

-HTH
I am RU

[linuxfan]

Oops

that should be

sed "s#$pass#abCdef#" /etc/passwd > /etc/passwd.new

Obviously you do want to generate the new file right. ;)

-Regards
I am RU