Managing many accounts
193
passwd does not echo the characters typed at the prompt. This would pro 
vide several ways to  steal  your password, including just looking over your
shoulder as you enter it.
Once passwd verifies that the password is correct, the new password is re 
quested. When it has been entered the new password will be requested again.
If you can type the same password twice, it is assumed that you can type it
again whenever you need to. This will fail if the two passwords don't match.
This keeps the stray character from becoming part of the password. Some 
times when you press the key you wish to press you also press another by
mistake. Since these keys are not echoed to the screen, you get no feedback
that this has occurred. By asking for the password twice, these mistakes are
filtered out. As a result, you may sometimes be asked to try again, even when
you thought you got it right. No matter how clumsy you may be, passwd will
let you keep trying until you get it right.
Once Fred types his new secret password twice correctly, passwd makes the
entries that make that password the new one for this account. The password
will not change unless Fred, or someone with root privilege, changes it. This
makes the security of root privileges very important on a system with many
users just like Fred. Each of these users expect their files to be secure and
unaltered by another user account, relying on those with root privileges to not
abuse those privileges. This trust between the system administrator (usually
the only one with root access to the system) and the users is a relationship
in which some are very good and some can be overbearing. However, the best
administrator can have a password stolen or otherwise compromised. The
person who would do this may not worry about the other people's files, making
all precautions useless.






footer




 

 

 

 

 Home | About Us | Network | Services | Support | FAQ | Control Panel | Order Online | Sitemap | Contact

affordable web hosting

 

Our partners: PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor Best Web Hosting Java Web Hosting Inexpensive Web Hosting  Jsp Web Hosting

Cheapest Web Hosting Jsp Hosting Cheap Hosting

Visionwebhosting.net Business web hosting division of Web Design Plus. All rights reserved