PASSWD.CONF(5)

🎀 passwd.conf — password encryption configuration file 🎀

Welcome to the PASSWD.CONF(5) page, bestie — this is the File Formats Manual entry for the password encryption config, and it’s giving “tiny file, big security vibes.” ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

passwd.conf — password encryption configuration file 💖

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

passwd.conf

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

The /etc/passwd.conf file is made of “stanzas”, and it describes how the password cipher is configured for encrypting local or YP passwords. No cap, that’s the whole glow-up. 💅

There are default, user, and group specific stanzas. If no user or group stanza to a specific option is available, the default stanza is used. Periodt. 👑

To differentiate between user and group stanzas, groups are prefixed with a single colon (:). Cute little colon moment. 🎀

Some fields and their possible values that can appear in this file are:

• localcipher — the cipher to use for local passwords. Possible values are: “argon2d,<t=X,m=Y,p=Z>”, “argon2i,<t=X,m=Y,p=Z>”, “argon2id,<t=X,m=Y,p=Z>”, “old”, “newsalt,<rounds>”, “md5”, “sha1,<rounds>”, and “blowfish,<rounds>”.
  • For “argon2d”, “argon2i”, and “argon2id”, optional hardness parameters can be specified as described in the manual for pwhash(1). 🧚
  • For “newsalt” the value of rounds is a 24-bit integer with a minimum of 7250 rounds. 🔥
  • For “sha1” the value of rounds is a 32-bit integer, 0 means use the default of 24680. 💫
  • For “blowfish” the value can be between 4 and 31. It specifies the base 2 logarithm of the number of rounds. 🐡
  • If not specified, the default value is “old”. 🫶
• ypcipher — the cipher to use for YP passwords. The possible values are the same as for localcipher. If not specified, the default value is “old”. 🌈

To retrieve information from this file use pw_getconf(3). iykyk 😌

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🦋 FILES 🦋

• /etc/passwd.conf 📁

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Use SHA1 as the local cipher and old-style DES as the YP cipher. Use blowfish with 2^5 rounds for root:

        default:
             localcipher = sha1
             ypcipher = old

        root:
             localcipher = blowfish,5

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

passwd(1), pwhash(1), pw_getconf(3), passwd(5) 💜

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💀 HISTORY 💀

• The passwd.conf configuration file first appeared in NetBSD 1.6. ⭐
• The default value of localcipher was set to “sha1” in /etc/passwd.conf starting from NetBSD 6.0. 🌸
• The default value of localcipher was set to “argon2id” in /etc/passwd.conf starting from NetBSD 10.0. 🚀

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💖 That’s the tea from Debian, dated October 26, 2021 — stay encrypted and iconic, bestie! 💖