Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!att!princeton!njin!birchall From: birchall@pilot.njin.net (Official Random) Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy Subject: Re: SUSPEND SYSOPS, NOT STUDENTS Message-ID: Date: 13 Jun 91 02:13:35 GMT References: <20740@slice.ooc.uva.nl> Organization: New Jersey Intercampus Network Lines: 24 I'm with the dutchman on this... it's not nice to go around taking other folk's accounts, but if I do a grep :: /etc/passwd, and get ANYTHING back (other than maybe a root or uucp), there are people using the machine that just plain should not be allowed near anything more powerful than a Z-80 based CP/M machine. The fault is not to be solely lain on the "hackers." As administrators, you (we?) should have the intelligence to explain THOROUGHLY to users exactly how to set a password that can't be easily compromised. We should also have the common sense to occasionally DO a grep :: /etc/passwd and either notify those users who don't have the sentience to set passwords, or set their shells and ~dirs to /dev/nul or some such :) [Note: I am not a true "Administrator." I am, by most meanings, a "Hacker." I tend to use resources that no one else needs or wants. If I find a security hole, I notify the appropriate authorities.] -sh birchall@pilot.njin.net birchall@njin.bitnet shag@mercury.njit.edu shag@mercury.bitnet shag@gnu.ai.mit.edu shag@glia.biostr.washington.edu shag@nyx.cs.du.edu shag@shadowfax.cs.utk.edu -- ------------------- Shag is. Nuff said. -------------------