[743] in SIPB bug reports
Re: xscreensaver password bug?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Nov 14 22:58:06 1989
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 89 22:59:37 -0500
From: Bill Sommerfeld <wesommer@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
To: cepickel@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Cc: bug-sipb@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Chuck Pickelhaupt's message of Tue, 14 Nov 89 22:47:02 EST,
"Not our fault".
The athena version of login creates an account for you in the local
/etc/passwd file if you don't have one, and sets the UNIX-style
encrypted password (the second field in the password file) to the
appropriate function of your password; this account is *supposed* to
be deleted when you log out, but it doesn't always get deleted.
If you already have an account, login doesn't bother to set the
password in /etc/passwd at login time.
The password is set in /etc/passwd as a "convenience" to any "older"
programs which may happen to look there; one of these programs is
xscreensaver.
Rebooting the workstation cleans things up because (at least if the
workstation is "public"), /etc/passwd gets cleared out.
The "real bug" appears to be that the "passwd" command doesn't update
the local /etc/passwd file.
- Bill
