PASSWD.CONF(5) | File Formats Manual | PASSWD.CONF(5)

# NAME

`passwd.conf` —
password encryption configuration file

# SYNOPSIS

`passwd.conf` |

# DESCRIPTION

The /etc/passwd.conf file, consisting of “stanzas”, describes the configuration of the password cipher used to encrypt local or YP passwords.

There are default, user and group specific stanzas. If no user or group stanza to a specific option is available, the default stanza is used.

To differentiate between user and group stanzas, groups are prefixed with a single colon (‘:’).

Some fields and their possible values that can appear in this file are:

localcipher
  The cipher to use for local passwords.

  Possible values are: “argon2d,<t=X,m=Y,p=Z>”, “argon2i,<t=X,m=Y,p=Z>”, “argon2id,<t=X,m=Y,p=Z>”, “old”, “newsalt,<rounds>”, “md5”, “sha1,<rounds>”, and “blowfish,<rounds>”.

  For “argon2d”, “argon2i”, and “argon2id”, optional hardness parameters can be specified as described in the manual for pwhash(1).

  For “newsalt” the value of rounds is a 24-bit integer with a minimum of 7250 rounds.

  For “sha1” the value of rounds is a 32-bit integer, 0 means use the default of 24680.

  For “blowfish” the value can be between 4 and 31. It specifies the base 2 logarithm of the number of rounds.

  If not specified, the default value is “old”.

ypcipher
  The cipher to use for YP passwords.

  The possible values are the same as for localcipher.

  If not specified, the default value is “old”.

To retrieve information from this file use pw_getconf(3).

# FILES

/etc/passwd.conf

# EXAMPLES

Use SHA1 as the local cipher and old-style DES as the YP cipher. Use blowfish with 2^5 rounds for root:

     default:
          localcipher = sha1
          ypcipher = old

     root:
          localcipher = blowfish,5

# SEE ALSO

passwd(1), pwhash(1), pw_getconf(3), passwd(5)

# HISTORY

The `passwd.conf` configuration file first appeared in NetBSD 1.6.

The default value of localcipher was set to “sha1” in /etc/passwd.conf starting from NetBSD 6.0.

The default value of localcipher was set to “argon2id” in /etc/passwd.conf starting from NetBSD 10.0.

October 26, 2021 | NetBSD 10.1