NIS and passwd

[Shao Zhang <shao@cia.com.au>]

Hi,
    Could anyone please tell me how secure it is when using NIS to share
the /etc/passwd file?

    I have two machines on the network, and due to security reasons, all
my passwd files are on one machine(A) only. The other machine is running
a ftp server, and I need to get the passwd from machine A. I am thinking
to use NIS to share
the passwd. But I am not sure if it is secure as there are many people
trying to hack in our machine everyday.

    I would really like to write a little server myself. I don't know
how hard it would be and where to start. Can someone please point me to
some directions??

    Also, is there a debian package that contains md5 encryption
program.

    Thanks.

Shao.

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Shao Zhang - Running Debian 2.1  ___ _               _____
Department of Communications    / __| |_  __ _ ___  |_  / |_  __ _ _ _  __ _
University of New South Wales   \__ \ ' \/ _` / _ \  / /| ' \/ _` | ' \/ _` |
Sydney, Australia               |___/_||_\__,_\___/ /___|_||_\__,_|_||_\__, |
Email: shao@cia.edu.au                                                  |___/
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