[NTLUG:Discuss] root password in Knoppix

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Fri, Jul 22, 2005 at 08:27:16AM -0500, Terry wrote:
> > with grep and look for an asterisk in the second field:
> > 
> >   root at tty1[/]# grep -e root -e knoppix /etc/shadow
> >   root:*:11456:0:99999:7:::
> >   knoppix:*:11593:0:99999:7:::
> 
> >From the above, I assume that * is the same as nothing at all?
> i.e.
> root:*:11456:0:99999:7:::
> would be same as
> root::11456:0:99999:7:::
> and therefore the  "*" is just something like a placeholder?

'*' indicates the account is locked -- i.e., no password the
user might enter will match it (because nothing encrypts to '*').

Having an empty password field ('::') is the same as saying "no password
required" -- i.e., the user isn't prompted for a password, or if prompted
then a blank password is accepted.

Pm