20 Mar
2003
20 Mar
'03
1:23 p.m.
rahul revo writes:
hi i am a linux newbie and am using red hat 8.0 can i get the password for another user if i am the root user? i do not want to "su user" but to actually get the password.
Not possible. User passwords are stored as one way hashes, so it is not possible to get back the passwords from the hashes even for the root user. Unless u use a library/random password generation (for cracking the password )and then hashing it and comparing it with the actual hash. If the two hashes match, bingo u have the password. However it is possible for the superuser to reset the password of the user.
Vinayak Hegde APGDST Student NCST-JUHU