recovering passwords from a (legimately acquired) /etc/passwd file

L1011

I have here sitting on my desktop the /etc/passwd file off my own IRIX 6.2 install which I've forgotten the password to - machine wasn't booted since the 1990's, so I've quite obviously forgotten the root password.

Is there any way to recover the real password from the encrypted one in the file? Note that while I have the "file" here I had to transcript it - I need to be root to screw with network settings to get files on/off the machine, so I have to be able to work on the file on one of my other boxes.

kdouglas

had a similar problem with an sgi o2 "toaster" running irix, luckily had an sgi origin machine handy which we had root access to, simply put the hard drive from the toaster into the origin and mounted it, then copied the passwd and shadow files across thus setting the root password to be the same as that of the origin.
if you can do something similar thats probably your best way of getting root access.

maxheadroom

MYOB wrote:

I have here sitting on my desktop the /etc/passwd file off my own IRIX 6.2 install which I've forgotten the password to - machine wasn't booted since the 1990's, so I've quite obviously forgotten the root password.

Is there any way to recover the real password from the encrypted one in the file? Note that while I have the "file" here I had to transcript it - I need to be root to screw with network settings to get files on/off the machine, so I have to be able to work on the file on one of my other boxes.

Can you boot a liveCD / emergency floppy, chroot, and just set a new pass?

http://docs.rinet.ru/UNIXi/ch33.htm wrote:

How do I circumvent the root password?

NOTE: These instructions are included so that you can safeguard your system from attacks and so that you can regain access to your system if you have legitimately lost the root password.

To circumvent the root password in IRIX versions 5.3 and later, you must load the miniroot from an OS CD or other source.

Once the miniroot is loaded, follow these steps (menus have been omitted for brevity):

Inst> admin
Admin> shroot
chrooting to /
escher 21# passwd -d root

With those steps completed, you have removed the root user's password and can set it to whatever you like.

WARNING: Guard your bootable CD-ROMs with care (lock and key if need be). They hold the key to your system. Likewise, if you are running an older version of IRIX (before 5.0), you should either upgrade or guard your system with care.

L1011

Not being loaded, I don't have a second SGI to do that with. The password isn't shadowed, its actually in the /etc/passwd file.

L1011

maxheadroom wrote:

Can you boot a liveCD / emergency floppy, chroot, and just set a new pass?

Unfortunately not, I have the boot media but no CD-ROM drive - they weren't fitted as standard in 1993. I do know about the miniroot trick, though.

I also can't put the HDD in a Linux box with XFS support as its a SCSI disk and my machines are all IDE. Annoying, but I don't think IDE was too coomon in 1993 either.

Red Alert

You could try the crack utility - what algorithm are those passwords encoded with? Crypt i'd presume. That would do it although it could take a while.

L1011

Right, I John The Ripper'ed the passwd file

Took it 1 guess. Password for root was root

It was changed before I even let the machine touch the net...

Capt'n Midnight

MYOB wrote:

Took it 1 guess. Password for root was root

LOL

L1011

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

LOL

Hey, I was a kid. Quite literally.

Machine was at a 2-figure patchset... SGI have it up to 4000 or so atm... been patching all night...

niallb

When I decommision a machine for storage, I always change
the root password to 'password' once it's been deconfigured.
"Always" that is, since an episode with a HP/UX server with no
record of the root password :-)
Still have that, if anyone's interested!

Good to hear you got it sorted out.

NiallB

dahamsta

MYOB wrote:

Right, I John The Ripper'ed the passwd file

Took it 1 guess. Password for root was root

LOL