Summary: Moving /etc/passwd from non DUnix Systems

From: Bruce B. Platt <bbp_at_comport.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 08:07:52 +5000

Thanks to all who answered and supplied help to the following
question:

I need to move user accounts from two non-dec system to a DUnix V3.F
system on an AlphaServer 1000. One is a PC based BSDI Unix system,
and the other is a Sun Sparc station.

I can move the data in their account ok by tar-ing, copying to new
machine, un-tar-ing.

How about /etc/passwd? It I could just tansfer /etc/passwd and
/etc/group my life will be easier tan if I have to have each user
create their new passwords for Dunix. Will the hashed passwords from
the old system work on the new one? The crypt man page leaves me
unclear about the level of arithmetic precision used. Does the increased
word length on an Alpha lead to a different output of the function than that same
function performed on a PC or a Sparc?

The general consesus is that as long as the password field in
/etc/passwd is 13 characters, the first two being the salt, then all
should be OK.

I have included the replies I received because I thought there were
some clever approaches in them.

Again thanks very much to those who answered,

Bruce


The following provided help:

  Gerhard Kircher <kircher_at_edvz.tuwien.ac.at>

They are likely to work if the hashed passwords are 13
characters long. You can check it with known passwords using
the appended C program. Compile with

  make crypt3

(in case you call the saved file crypt3.c) and use the
hashed password (or at least the two leading characters) as
salt.

Good Luck,

Gerhard

--
 Gerhard Kircher                   kircher_at_edvz.tuwien.ac.at
 Vienna University of Technology   phone: +43 1 588 01 5599
 Computing Services                fax  : +43 1 587 42 11
 Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10, A-1040 Vienna, Austria
--8<----------8<-----------8<-------------------------------
/*
 * crypt3 - a wrapper for the crypt(3) library function
 *
 * called crypt3 to distinguish it from crypt(1)
 *
 * 1994, Gerhard Kircher <kircher_at_edvz.tuwien.ac.at>
 */
void
main(argc, argv)
int argc;
char *argv[];
{
	if (argc!=3) { printf("Usage: %s <key> <salt>\n",argv[0]); exit(1); 
}
	puts(crypt(argv[1],argv[2]));
	exit(0);
}
 Peter Stern <peter_at_wiscpa.weizmann.ac.il>
There should be no problem with the encryption as long as your not
using C2 security.  It is simply a 13-byte field.  In fact, when I
was setting up my system and I wanted to give users the same
passwords as they had on say an IBM RS6000, I simply cut the 13-byte
password field with the mouse from a window to the RS6000 and pasted
it into the correct place in /etc/passwd using vi on the Digital
machine
 md_at_adv.sbc.sony.co.jp (Mark Dudley)
We have a mixed network of UNIX boxes incuding Dec alp[has and Suns 
and we run NIS including passwords without any problems
Burch Seymour RTPS <bseymour_at_encore.com>
 "Javier M. Pereira" <javier_at_sobrino.eui.upm.es>
  With C2 security osf uses more than 8 characters for passwd, so 
more than 13 character for the passwd field in /etc/passswd.
If I have the passwd 1234567890 in my old system, the system get 
only 12345678 to translate it  and forgets 90.  If I put on the oter 
hand 1234567890 in my osf system with C" security it will not work 
becouse it will use 1234567890 to translate the passwd instead of just 
12345678. The usrer will have to put only the first eight characters of his 
passwd  in the new osf system. 
 Mike Iglesias <iglesias_at_draco.acs.uci.edu>
Unless you are using something other than the base security level on
the Digital Unix system, you shouldn't have a problem with the
encrypted passwords.
 "Alejandro Arturo Barrera Sanchez(ZOR)" <abs_at_osfulsa.ulsa.mx>
	
I've migrated users accounts from a HP-9000 running HP-UX 9.01 to 
a DEC running DU 3.2, the /etc/password have problems about the 
passwords of users, and /etc/groups need to be modified because in HP-UX a 
group with more than a certain number of users needs a carriage return and 
the name and number of the group is the same.
	About the user's data i've copied them with NFS and cp -p and 
there wasn't any problem. I hope this data can help you.
 "Akihito 'ycos' Yakoshi" <yakoshi_at_osa.dec.com>
I don't know BSDI passwd.
 and  I don't know OS name for your Sparc (Solaris 1.x or 2.x?)
In generally, PASSWD share the all of unix system.
If you cange passwd file manualy, must be use mkpasswd(8).
or use vipw(8).
If you use Solaris 2.x, you generate passwd file by this roule.
replase /etc/passwd's 2nd filed to /etc/shadow's 2nd field .
At Sorlaris 2.x
	# sort /etc/passwd > d1
	# sort /etc/shadow > d2
	# join -t: -o 1.1,2.2,1.3,1.4,1.5,1.6,1.7 d1 d2 > new_passwd
+--------------------------------------+
Bruce B. Platt, PhD     bbp_at_comport.com
Comport Consulting Corporation
78 Orchard Street, Ramsey, NJ 07446
Tel: 201-236-0505 Fax: 201-236-1335

Received on Fri Jul 19 1996 - 14:39:58 NZST