[Bug 1584945] Re: after reset password in /etc/passwd and set a new one, hash appears in /etc/passwd

[Seth Arnold]

A co-worker has reminded me that the 'x' in the passwd file is how the
shadow suite annotates that the password should be stored in the shadow
file:

       password field is blank. If the password field is a
       lower-case “x”, then the encrypted password is actually
       stored in the shadow(5) file instead; there must be a
       corresponding line in the /etc/shadow file, or else the user
       account is invalid. If the password field is any other

(from passwd(5))

Once the 'x' was removed, that was the indicator that the password
should be stored in the passwd file instead of the shadow file.

So this is behaving as expected.

Thanks

** Changed in: base-passwd (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Invalid

** Information type changed from Private Security to Public Security

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1584945

Title:
  after reset password in /etc/passwd and set a new one, hash appears in
  /etc/passwd

Status in base-passwd package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  After resetting a password in /etc/passwd (and /etc/shadow) and setting a new one, its hash appears in /etc/passwd.
  I forgot my pass :( and launched liveUSB with Ubuntu 16.04.
  1st time I just used vi to edit /etc/passwd and remove "x" char in 2nd column.
  Reboot and I can change (maybe set) pass the usual way "passwd" etc.
  But password's hash appears in /etc/passwd.
  So strange.

  2nd time I used "vipw" and "vipw -s" to clean the 2nd column.
  Reboot. And I can set NEW password.
  Password's hash appears in passwd and does not appear in shadow.

  I use Ubuntu 16.04 with latest update.

  anonym at ubu:~$ tail -1 /etc/passwd
  anonym:$6$IM9SWBps$DLKVpwPdlVLPh7kbGZSYxd7w9EpPNram4E.wHJ37evdJLbDWLnQwmELypgAjQppZul2LknTrSzzcxmZ1f8bAe1:1000:1000:ANONYMVS:/home/anonym:/bin/bash
  anonym at ubu:~$ sudo tail -1 /etc/shadow
  [sudo] пароль для anonym: 
  anonym::16917:0:99999:7:::
  anonym at ubu:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release 
  DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
  DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
  DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
  DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04 LTS"
  anonym at ubu:~$

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