DOC HOME SITE MAP MAN PAGES GNU INFO SEARCH
 

shadow(F)


shadow -- shadow password file

Format

username:password:lastchanged:minimum:maximum

Description

shadow is an ASCII system file with restricted access. The fields for each user entry are separated by colons. Each user entry is separated from the next by a newline character. Unlike the /etc/passwd file, /etc/shadow is not generally readable.

The shadow file contains the following information for each user:


username
The user's login name (ID).

password
The encrypted password for the user, prefixed with the string ``*LK*'' when the account is locked, the string ``*RETIRED*'' when the account has been retired, or no string when the account does not have a password.

lastchanged
The number of days between January 1, 1970, and the date that the password was last modified.

minimum
The minimum number of days required between password changes.

maximum
The maximum number of days for which the password is valid.

The encrypted password consists of characters chosen from a 64-character alphabet ( ., /, 0-9, A-Z, a-z ). An encrypted password may be up to 112 characters long, the length being controlled by the length of cleartext password field on the Accounts selection of the Account manager. Every 8 characters of cleartext uses 11 characters of encrypted text. Encrypted passwords are always prefixed by a 2-character salt. The minimum length of an encrypted password is 13 characters.

Files


/etc/passwd
full pathname of passwd

/tcb/files/auth/[a-z]/?
protected password authentication database files

See also

getprpwent(S), login(M), passwd(C), passwd(F), prpw(F), rmuser(ADM), useradd(ADM), unretire(ADM)
© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003