passwd help...

[Ben Scott]

On 12/19/05, Richard Soule <richard.soule at oracle.com> wrote:
> Right now when I type passwd I get:
>
> Changing password for user root.
> New UNIX password: (I type root here)
> BAD PASSWORD: it is too short

  I've seen that before.  In my experience, on Red Hat and
derivatives, if "root" is running the passwd command, it warns you
that the password is bad, but will accept it anyway if you confirm it.
 If passwd is *not* running as root, it requires passwords to meet
strength checks.  So one way to bypass the strength checks is to set
all the passwords as the "root" user.

> (I think I'm asking how to shut off PAM.)

  Not exactly, but the password strength checking should be
configurable via PAM.  I suspect if you poke around in /etc/pam.d/ and
remove any references to "crack" (password cracker), you would be able
to disable for everybody.  Be aware that if you screw up PAM badly
enough, you can lock yourself out of the system.

  Hope this helps,

-- Ben