[lug] generating linux passwords using openssl

[Hugh Brown]

Your /etc/shadow is using md5.  If you look at all of the passwords, you
will find that they all start (or most of them) with a $1.  You might try
the -apr1 flag on openssl and see what you get.  I don't know enough about
how md5 works to tell you what the salt is.

Hugh


"charles at lunarmedia.net"
> 
> i'm messing around with taking a plain text password and running
> 
> 	openssl passwd -salt <characters> <passphrase>
> 
> to compare the outcome with entries in my /etc/shadow file. the output i
> am seeing from this command is very different from the output i see in
> /etc/shadow.
> 
> for example, in /etc/shadow, i see:
> 
> 	test:$1$1pqC/5DL$d/xHPgKHEilQeSqcArGNP0
> 
> test is a user whose passphrase is "charles"
> 
> i think that the salt for this password is "$1$" (the first three
> characters, right?)
> 
> when i run:
> 
> 	openssl passwd -salt $1$ charles
> 
> i get:
> 
> 	$AdaOyvpHrybM
> 
> which is considerably different. the only options i see for encryption
> methods under openssl are -apr1 for md5 and -crypt which is the default
> and is standard unix encryption.
> 
> why such a difference in the two hashes?