why are the password fields of user tmosadm and sybase in /etc/passwd file is x?

[David Shao]

root:tJYyfJm2yQ3qI:0:3::/:/sbin/sh
tmosadm:x:101:201:TMOSADM:/home/tmosadm:/bin/csh
sybase:x:102:202:Sybase:/opt/sybase/tools:/bin/csh

[Michael Tully · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I would say that the password encryption which should be in those fields has been removed. At a guess the account has had that encryption removed manually. If you wish to have an account locked, you can place an '*' in this field, or if you are using your system as trusted, this there other means in which to secure accounts.

To activate these accounts to have passwords, simply run the 'passwd' command as 'root'

# passwd tmosadm

Make sure this is exactly what you need to do before doing this, as some accounts particularly ones that have administrative privileges are 'su' accounts only, meaning that they can be used from 'root' with the need of a password at all and without logging in as that user.

Hope this makes some sense.
Michael

[T G Manikandan]

There are many ways of adding users.
One way is to edit the passwd file and make entries.
If you have a 'x' in the second field it means that the user has a password and the password is stored in the /etc/shadow file.
Hpux does not have shadow file,it stores the password in the passwd file itself.

In solaris you have the 'x' in the second field and you have a seperate file for storing passwordsi.e./etc/shadow


Thanks

[V. Nyga]

Hi David,

is it a 'x' or a'*'?
A '*' is set when the users are deaktivated by SAM.
Also users like 'lp', 'daemon' and 'sys' have this.
So you can't login with this users but they could start processes.

Regards
Volkmar

[David Shao]

Hi,Michael

Did you mean I could only use 'su' to login as tmosadmin and sybase?

[Darren Prior]

Hi,

These accounts have invalid passwords if the encrypted string is just a single 'x', ie no possible plain text password would ever encrypt to 'x'. So the only way to access these accounts is to use su from root as root doesn't need to supply passwords to use su.

As others have stated the normal way to lock/disable an account is to use an asterisk in the password field.

regards,

Darren.

[V. Nyga]

Hi David,

yes - you have to be logged in as root to make either su - 'user' or to set a password with passwd 'user'

Regards
Volkmar