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SpongeBOB

Member

From: Brussels

Registered: 2022-02-07

Posts: 114  

Secure /etc/passwd ?

Hi everyone,

I see that by default the file /etc/passwd is 644

Is it not insecure that Others have read permissions ? I'm not feeling comfortable with that...

I change it to 640 but of course when I log-in with a user that start startxfce4 it's won't launch the GUI and stay in CLI...

I would like to give the correct ACL permissions to make xcfe start, but I don't even know witch account should have read acces ??

Thanks

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Linux noob, plz be kind

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2019-03-24

Posts: 3,125  

Website

Re: Secure /etc/passwd ?

Is it not insecure that Others have read permissions ?

No. The actual passwords are encrypted and stored under /etc/shadow as per passwd(5).

I change it to 640

Change it back. Many utilities use that file to map user IDs to user names. It should be world-readable.

EDIT: use pwck(8) & grpck(8) to verify the integrity and validity of /etc/passwd,/etc/shadow & /etc/group.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2022-03-11 09:20:51)

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Brianna Ghey — Rest In Power

SpongeBOB

Member

From: Brussels

Registered: 2022-02-07

Posts: 114  

Re: Secure /etc/passwd ?

Thank you HOAS,

I knew that the actual password are stored in /etc/shadow.

But I found curious that any user account can list the full list of user registered on the machine..

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Linux noob, plz be kind

hevidevi

Member

Registered: 2021-09-17

Posts: 230  

Re: Secure /etc/passwd ?

I think alpinelinux has a way of hiding users in /etc/passwd. Im not on alpine at the moment but from memory last time i looked my user was called "linux user" in /etc/passwd but user name aka /home/username was hevidevi. Ill have to revisit alpine again to understand more.

Edit to add. Alpine linux was absent the shadow file/package from base install afaik.

Last edited by hevidevi (2022-03-12 14:41:13)