how do I recover /etc/passwd?

[debpandra]

hello,
by mistake I deleted all the content of the /etc/passwd. I have red hat 7.2. It uses the /etc/shadow file. I don't know if this could help. Next time I will do a backup of the /etc/passwd file, but now, is there any way to recover the content of that file? i didnt restart the computer yet.

thanks a lot for your reply
Deb

 

[marsd]

You are going to have one hell of a time.
I would boot from a floppy(single user will not do it)
and search /etc for a backup copy first, many times when /etc/passwd is edited a responsible editing program will make a backup.
If this is the case it's a nobrainer to restore.

Otherwise you will have to copy accountnames from shadow
(or find/write a utility that does this) and restore the user accounts to a new passwd file, and then manually
restore the passwd info for each.

Good Luck

 

[jaymzter]

Look into using John the Ripper, it has a password conversion utility to take shadow passwords and make a new /etc/passwd file. Maybe it can write a new /etc/passwd, and then you can convert back to shadow passwords. Actually, on RH, try the tool 'authconfig', and that will turn off shadow passwords and write a new /etc/password (I think). HTH

 

[fluid11]

Cut the usernames from /etc/shadow and insert them into a new /etc/passwd...

cut -d: -f1 /etc/shadow > /etc/passwd

Get yourself a copy of another Red Hat 7.2 /etc/passwd file and copy over the default users to your new file.

Fill in the rest of the fields for the users that you created. Start numbering the UIDs and GIDs with 500.


ChrisP

 

[dawookie]

There should be a backup of a recent passwd file stored as /etc/passwd- Cheers

man(1) is your friend