PASSWD(1) PASSWD(1)
NAME
passwd, netkey - change or verify user password
SYNOPSIS
passwd [ username[@domain] ]
netkey
DESCRIPTION
Passwd changes the invoker's Plan 9 password and/or APOP
secret. The Plan 9 password is used to login to a terminal
while the APOP secret is used for a number of external ser-
vices: POP3, IMAP, and VPN access. The optional argument
specifies the user name and authentication domain to use if
different than the one associated with the machine passwd is
run on.
The program first prompts for the old Plan 9 password in the
specified domain to establish identity. It then prompts for
changes to the password and the secret. New passwords and
secrets must be typed twice, to forestall mistakes. New
passwords must be sufficiently hard to guess. They may be
of any length greater than seven characters.
Netkey prompts for a password to encrypt network challenges.
It is a substitute for a SecureNet box.
These commands may be run only on a terminal, to avoid
transmitting clear text passwords over the network.
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/auth/passwd.c
/sys/src/cmd/auth/netkey.c
SEE ALSO
readnvram in authsrv(2), encrypt(2), cons(3), auth(8),
securenet(8)
Robert Morris and Ken Thompson, ``UNIX Password Security,''
AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal Vol 63 (1984), pp.
1649-1672
BUGS
Now that cpu connections are always encrypted, the only good
reason to require that these commands be run only on termi-
nals is concern that the CPU server might be subverted.
Page 1 Plan 9 (printed 10/29/25)