Redhat: Shadow

The Redhat Shadow Password Suite

Before security became an issue all users and passwords were stored in /etc/passwd and /etc/group files. But having the passwords stored in a reachable file is obviously not an option any more. The shadow password suite is designed to solve this problem. Sensitive data such as passwords have been moved to a file only accessible to the root user.

The Shadow password suite consists of four files. /etc/passwd and /etc/group are the files used origanally. Two files have been added to the suite: /etc/shadow and /etc/gshadow. The default values of the files are defined in /etc/login.defs

passwd

AAAS_TEST:x:30587:30588::/home/AAAS_TEST:/bin/bash
tom_gds:x:30588:30589::/home/tom_gds:/bin/bash
manu_iitk:x:30589:30589::/home/manu_iitk:/bin/bash
jump_trading:x:30590:30590::/home/jump_trading:/bin/bash
saha_pec:x:30591:30591::/home/saha_pec:/bin/bash