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                        Npasswd Miscellaneous Notes
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   UNIX platforms and features which npasswd is known to support:
   
   UNIX platform Supported features
   SunOS 5
   (Solaris 2) Shadow passwords
   NIS passwords
   SunOS 4
   (Solaris 1) Adjunct passwords
   Secure RPC
   NIS passwords
   Digital UNIX
   (OSF/1) 3.X and 4.X Enhanced security
   NIS passwords
   HP-UX
   Enhanced security*
   NIS passwords
   AIX 4
   Shadow passwords*
   NIS passwords
   *See below
   
  SunOS 4 (Solaris 1)
  
   Support for SunOS 4 is still included, but I have ceased development.
       Secure RPC and adjunct passwords are supported, though not
       thoroughly tested. Npasswd will build with either the standard
       (/usr/ucb/cc) compiler or the Sun (/usr/lang/acc) compiler.
       
  SunOS 5 (Solaris 2)
  
       Npasswd does not support NIS+.
       Getting passwords out of NIS+ is easy, and even updating them is
       straightforward. NIS+ credentials are complicated to manage.
       It is possible but not a good idea to have the login password and
       the NIS+ key phrase be different. Hence, when the login password
       is changed, the key phrase should be updated. The API for doing
       this has changed in every version of Solaris, and was
       undocumented.
       There is an application which does this (nisaddcred), but either
       takes the key phrase from the command line or reads it from
       /dev/tty. Neither choice is suitable for use by npasswd.
       
  Digital UNIX (aka OSF/1) 3 and 4
  
   Support for enhanced security is included, though it has not been
       extensively tested. Do not interchange binaries between Digital
       UNIX versions 3 and 4 - the shadow password structure is
       different.
       
AIX 4

       Support for shadow passwords is included, but has been only
       lightly tested.
       AIX 4.1 has many password restrictions which can be set per-user
       or system wide. These include lexical requirements, dictionary
       searches (though not nearly as vigorous that done by npasswd) and
       a hook for external password check modules. Judicious use of these
       restrictions should result in passwords which are harder to crack.
       You may desire to tune these password restrictions first before
       converting to npasswd.
       The words lists from this distribution could be used as password
       check dictionaries.
       There are a number of other password restrictions available on AIX
       4, and a password history mechanism, none of which are supported
       by npasswd.
       
  HP-UX
  
   The support for HP-UX enhanced security was contributed by Mike Stute
       (mstute@compucom.com). I do not have a HP-UX system available to
       verify these changes or fix bugs.
       
  IRIX
  
   Works under IRIX 6.3. The -Wl,-w compiler option is needed to suppress
       superfluous loader warning messages.
       
Password history

   The code which maintains password history in a NIS map is untested.
       This can only be used if Secure RPC is being used (e.g. SunOS 4
       system with C2 security active).
       Password history in a NIS map (or NIS+ table) would work much
       better for a cluster, rather than sharing a history file with NFS.
       One approach would be to define an RPC service to query and update
       password history, and provide a daemon, which would be started at
       boot time on the system having the password file.
       
Enhanced security support

       The major UNIX vendors have security facilities which should
       facilitate the development of programs such as npasswd. The
       mechanisms are often complex, sometimes the API is not well
       documented, nor is sample code available.
       Hence, npasswd makes minimal use of such facilities.
   ______________________________________________________________________
   
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   Document id @(#) MiscNotes.html 1.6
   Version 1.6
   Last modified 07/20/98
   
   
    [3]Clyde Hoover
    [4]Academic Computing Services and Instructional Technology Services
    [5]The University of Texas at Austin
    [6]Copyright 1998, The University of Texas at Austin. All rights
    reserved.

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