vncpasswd(1)

💖 vncpasswd — the TigerVNC password glow-up 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to vncpasswd(1), part of the Virtual Network Computing manual set. this is the little tool that handles the password for your VNC desktops and honestly? she's doing the most with the least. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

vncpasswd — change the VNC password

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

vncpasswd [passwd-file]
vncpasswd -f

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so vncpasswd is the girl who lets you set the password used to access VNC desktops. that's her whole thing. her default behavior is to prompt you for a VNC password and then store an obfuscated version of it into passwd-file — or, if you didn't specify a password file, into $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tigervnc/passwd. 💅

the vncserver script literally runs vncpasswd the very first time you start a VNC desktop (yes, she's automatic, she's self-sufficient), and it invokes Xvnc with the appropriate -rfbauth option. and vncviewer can also be handed a password file to use via the -passwd option. everyone's using her, no cap.

okay now the rules, and listen up because these matter:

• your password has to be at least six characters long — unless you're using the -f command-line option, which we'll get to below 👀
• only the first eight characters are significant, so don't get cute with a long one thinking it's doing extra
• > not me having to say this 😭 — the stored password is not encrypted securely. like, at all. anyone who has access to this file can trivially find out the plain-text password. that's just the truth of it.

but because she's a considerate icon, vncpasswd always sets appropriate permissions on the file — read and write only by the owner. periodt. 🔒

and here's the good part: when you're actually accessing a VNC desktop, a challenge-response mechanism is used over the wire, which makes it hard for anyone to crack the password just by snooping on the network. so the wire is fine, it's the file you gotta protect. 🌈

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -f — Filter mode. she reads a plain-text password from stdin and writes an encrypted version to stdout. and heads up: in filter mode, short or even empty passwords will be silently accepted. no warnings, no judgment, no nothing. 💀

a view-only password must be separated from the normal password by a newline character. that's the whole separator. just a newline. that's it. ✨

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🧚 FILES 🧚

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tigervnc/passwd
• $HOME/.config/tigervnc/passwd

these are the default location of the VNC password file. that's where she lives when you don't tell her otherwise 🏠

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

vncviewer(1), Xvnc(1) vncconfig(1), vncsession(8)

https://www.tigervnc.org

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💜 AUTHORS 💜

Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd., Antoine Martin, D. R. Commander and others. iconic lineup fr fr 🫶

VNC was originally developed by the RealVNC team while at Olivetti Research Ltd / AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. TightVNC additions were implemented by Constantin Kaplinsky. Many other people have since participated in development, testing and support. This manual is part of the TigerVNC software suite. ⭐

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this manual is part of the TigerVNC software suite — shoutout to the TigerVNC girlies who keep the whole thing running, mwah 🎀✨