Re: etc/passwd file

From: Nick Maclaren (nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk)
Date: 10/29/02 

From: nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren)
Date: 29 Oct 2002 20:19:59 GMT

In article <apmn52$bqt$1@nntp.itservices.ubc.ca>,
Bill Unruh <unruh@string.physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
>
>... It has been an amazingly
>successful design, especially considering that the idea of an open
>password file was considered heretical at the time.

Not QUITE everywhere :-)

It was still pretty heretical in the mid-1970s, when most people
(vendors and users) were wedded to the idea of keeping passwords
in clear in well-secured files. Given the chances of a system
manager forgetting to clear a printout or display when a user
visits his office, that was a truly ghastly approach.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email: nmm1@cam.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679

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