Re: NIS and passwd

[Paul Miller <pmiller@jove.acs.unt.edu>]

Shao Zhang wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 
NIS transmits the actuall /etc/passwd file (its own version of it at
least). That means the encripted passwords are transmitted. Now should
someone actually find out how to unencript one password, they have
access to all passwords transmitted by NIS (root's password is not one
of these). 

Hope this helps,

-- 
Paul Miller
pmiller@jove.acs.unt.edu

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