This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
passwd names the account, the uid, and the shell. shadow holds ageing and a hash. The shadow decoder explains those fields and says it does not test or recover the password. The hash generator is not a cracker. A raw SHA-512 digest is not an /etc/shadow hash. The shadow form is made with openssl passwd -6 on the server.
Do not paste a real hash into the ticket. Do not copy shadow off a host you do not administer. One line you already hold, with the hash redacted in the note.
192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Paste a line you may hold, or a sample with a fake hash.
- Read the fields.
- Redact a real hash.
- Do not try the password.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
/etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Explained goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A password recovered.
- A real hash filed in the ticket.
- Shadow copied from a host you do not administer.
- The digest treated as a shadow hash.
Decisions to write down
One decision for /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Explained: The tools do not recover a password. The hash is redacted. The host is yours, or the line is a sample. And nothing was cracked.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The fields are written. No real hash is in the note. No password was tried. The digest was not called a shadow hash. And the host is yours or the line is a sample. If one of those fails, stop.
# The decoder does not recover a password.
# A raw digest is not a shadow hash.
# Do not file a real hash.Before you leave the host
/etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Explained ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
Tools for this guide
These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.