PASS.CHK

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: Feb 4, 1992
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NAME

pass.chk - Checks for poor passwords in a password file.

SYNOPSIS

pass.chk [ options ]

DESCRIPTION

By default pass.chk only checks for accounts with passwords the same as the login name. The following options add more extensive checking. (The tradeoff is cpu time -- with all options enabled it can run into the 100's of MINUTES.) Any argument that does not begin with a "-" is assumed to be a file name. (A single '-' means stdin.) If no file name is given, /etc/passwd is used.

Options are:

-v: verbose -- list all guesses on stdout
-u: output the username on the line of the password file currently being checked. If the program stops abruptly you will then know how far it got.
-w file: use the list of words contained in "file" as likely passwords. Words in the file are one to a line. A variable, "ARB_CONST", on line 6 of the source file, "pass.c", determines how many words can be in the dictionary file. Default is 32000.
-b: check all guesses backwards too
-g: use the Full Name portion of the gecos field, the user's .plan, .forward, and .signature files to generate more guesses
-s: check the single letters a-z, A-Z, 0-9 as passwords
-c: with each guess, check for all lower case and all upper case versions too.
-n: complain about null passwords (default is to keep quiet)
-p: print the password when guessed
-P file: use an alternate password file

If used on a Sun or Sun compatible, compiling with the -DC2 flag will enable C2/shadow passwords to be cracked (it must be run as root, however, to read the shadow password file.)

FILES

/etc/passwd

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Time: 23:44:35 GMT, February 06, 2023