Not all versions of passwd do this, and you don't say which one you are
using. But when you change your password, don't you have to type in the old
one before the new one? (Every version of passwd I've ever used requires
this, when a user is changing his or her own password.) Since both old and
new password have been entered, the app knows both and can make any sort of
comparison it wants.
Or am I misunderstanding your question? If so, sorry.
At 11:12 AM 5/3/00 +0400, V.Vasant wrote:
>Hello,
> I am puzzled by the following question.Whenever we change our
>password and in case our new password resembles even slightly older
>passwords, linux refuses to accept the new password and prints a message
>saying that it resembles the earlier one. But if I am correct , linux
>stores the passwords in an encrypted form.So how could it find out ,if
>there is any resemblence??.
> Since the crypt algorithm is a one way algorithm ,how can it find
>out similarities since the final encrypted text would surely be
>different, however similar be two pass phrases...
> Can someone please tell me how this thing is done??
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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