[Linux-disciples] Converting to DES passwords

[Stephen R Laniel]

It appears [1] that integrating OS X with NIS requires
converting from MD5 passwords to DES ones. Does anyone have
any idea how to do that?

I followed the advice in [2] and incorporated my non-system
shadow passwords into the passwd file using pwunconv. That
was the right thing to do, I assume?

[1] - http://www.bresink.de/osx/nis.html

Frequently Asked Questions
The NIS server is running an up-to-date Unix version. Mac OS
X has no problems accessing the database but logging in with
a NIS user account does not work

The current versions of Mac OS X assume that passwords are
encrypted using the classic DES scheme. Some Unix releases
use the modern MD5 encryption by default. If your NIS server
is using MD5 encryption, it won't be compatible with Mac OS
X. To check if this is causing the problem, enter

    ypcat passwd | tail

on any NIS client to display the last few lines of the user
database. The lines are structured like the following
example:

    guest:Cl/pdFPSstxJ2:596:100:Guest
User:/home/guest:/bin/tcsh

The part between the first and second colons (:) is the
encrypted user password. If it is longer than 13 characters
or begins with an "$1" marker, it is not DES-encrypted and
therefore not compatible. Here is a typical example:

    guest:$1$tJ2gSlhl$awGvwSsuXUP0jmkJmgDgK.:596:100:Guest
User:/home/guest:/bin/tcsh

Unfortunately, there is no other solution than to switch
your NIS server to DES encryption and to rebuild the whole
user database. Your server's documentation should have more
information about this.

[2] -
http://shorl.com/jajysubehafo

-- 
``Here, at last, are the cats.''
 -Cosma Shalizi, http://shorl.com/bastojepikyfro