The "missing" password!

[Colin Watson]

On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 05:36:27PM -0400, Mischa Falkenburg wrote:
> On 03/31/2014 08:01 AM, Colin Watson wrote:
> >On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 05:28:42AM -0400, Mischa Falkenburg wrote:
> >>Quick response to Niles...there are no /etc/shadow, or etc/passwd
> >>folders on this system.
> >They are files, not folders (more usually called "directories" on Unix),
> >and they're required to exist on all Ubuntu systems.  It's vanishingly
> >unlikely that they've been removed, and I suspect you wouldn't even have
> >got as far as you have done if they had.
> >
> >However, reading them will not help you anyway, as passwords are hashed,
> >not stored in cleartext.
> 
> I didn't say that they were removed.

They existed at one point.  If they no longer exist, then by definition
they've been removed.

> When I looked at /etc, I didn't see either /shadow or /passwd.
> 
> How would YOU find them - hashed or not?

I'd probably type "cat /etc/passwd" etc. in a terminal window.  Note
that /etc/shadow will only be readable by the root user.

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at ubuntu.com]