root password file

[awson50]

Hello all,

I just wanted to know if there is a file that contains information regarding root password similar to the information that the .netrc gives for scadm user ?

Thanks
Sean

 

[dbase77]

Hi,

What are you trying to do? There is no file that contains information like .netrc. .netrc file contain plain password which is very dangerous if misuse it.

dbase77

 

[awson50]

dbase77, Thanks for your quick referance to my question,
actually my question would be how do I know what is the root password is when I already logged in to the machine as root user, sound strange but here how it goes:
I work in a lab that uses SOLARIS8 and the OS is UNIX, sometimes we are executing some tests in the lab and for some reason the lab manager changes the root password without letting us know (lets say that before lunch we logged in as root and started the tests and while we were away for lunch he changed it so when we come back we can't continue the tests so allthough we are still logged in as root the program that we test is prompting for root password in order to continue testing the auto pilot login and without the new password we are "stuck" - we tried to locate the lab manager but it is almost imposible because he is usualy attending a lot of meetings so our tests are being aventually end up with a huge delay),

I will appreciate it if you can help me or can direct me to some documentation.

Thanks
awson50

 

[KenCunningham]

I really think this is an internal matter. Why is the lab manager changing the password (is someone doing something they shouldn't?)? Why do the things you're trying to do require root access (in general terms this is a no-no)?

Communication is the key here - you cannot expect people here to give you ways and means to compromise security.

 

[dbase77]

Hi,

If you still login as root, you can always change the root password back. There is no way you can view the root password from shadow file unless you want to spend couple of hours to decrypt them.

Kencunningham is right here. Communication is the key.

dbase77

 

[stefanwagner]

You may buy a cluster and try to hack the password (testing all possibilities), but it would be a bit cheaper to talk to the manager, rechange it, or create a special group for the tests, and add specific users to that group

 

[dsanchez2]

Unix does not maintain "clear" passwords. They are always store in an encrypted/hashed form. The first thing the system does when you enter a password (to loging) is encrypt the password that you entered, and use this encrypted version to check the password. So the answer to your questions is: NO, you CAN NOT get the password for any user, and this includes root.

As other posting here say: You should NOT use the root account for day-to-day operations. This account should only be use for system administration. Using the root password as you are compromises the security of your system.

 

[awson50]

All,

Thank you very much for the advices, I asked the lab manager to create a user for me and my team with permission similar to root so in the future we will not have any problems to run our test (which is AIT - Automatic Instolation Tool - that is why we needed root user) with no problem.

Thanks,
awson50