MAN page from Mandrake 8.X checkpassword-0.90-3rph.i586.rpm
checkpassword
Section: Maintenance Commands (8)
Index NAME
checkpassword - check a password
SYNOPSIS
checkpasswordsubprogram[
args ...]
DESCRIPTION
checkpasswordreads descriptor 3 through end of fileand then closes descriptor 3.There must be at most 512 bytes of data before end of file.
The information supplied on descriptor 3is a login name terminated by \0,a password terminated by \0,a timestamp terminated by \0,and possibly more data.There are no other restrictions onthe form of the login name, password, and timestamp.
If the password is unacceptable,checkpasswordexits 1.Ifcheckpasswordis misused,it may instead exit 2.If there is a temporary problem checking the password,checkpasswordexits 111.
If the password is acceptable,checkpasswordusesexecvpto runsubprogramwith the given arguments.
CHECKPASSWORD-COMPATIBLE TOOLS
There are other tools that offer the same interface as
checkpassword.Applications that use
checkpasswordare encouraged to take the
checkpasswordname as an argument,so that they can be used with different
checkpassword-compatibletools.
Note that these tools do not follow thegetoptinterface.Optional features are controlled through(1) the tool name and(2) environment variables.
THE PASSWORD DATABASE
checkpasswordchecks the login name and password against
/etc/passwd,using the operating system's
getpwnamand
cryptfunctions.It rejects accounts with empty passwords.It ignores the timestamp.
Othercheckpassword-compatibletools have different interpretations oflogin names, passwords, and timestamps.Both the login name and the passwordshould be treated as secrets by the application callingcheckpassword;the only distinction is for administrative convenience.The timestamp should include any other informationthat the password is based on;for example, the challenge in a challenge-response system such as APOP.
WARNING:getpwnamis inherently unreliable.It fails to distinguish between temporary errors and nonexistent users.Future versions ofgetpwnamshould return ETXTBSY to indicate temporary errorsand ESRCH to indicate nonexistent users.
PROCESS-STATE CHANGES
Before invoking
subprogram,
checkpasswordsets up
$USER,
$HOME,
$SHELL,its supplementary groups,its gid,its uid,and its working directory.
Othercheckpassword-compatibletools may make different changes to the process state.These effects must be documented;applications will differ in their requirements.
VERSION
This documentation describes
checkpasswordversion 0.80.See
http://pobox.com/~djb/checkpwd.htmlfor updates.
SEE ALSO
getpwnam(3),
crypt(3)
Index
- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- CHECKPASSWORD-COMPATIBLE TOOLS
- THE PASSWORD DATABASE
- PROCESS-STATE CHANGES
- VERSION
- SEE ALSO
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