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From: MARSELLE%gmr.com@RELAY.CS.NET
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Unix userid conventions
Message-ID: <4788@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 6-Mar-87 13:52:10 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.4788
Posted: Fri Mar  6 13:52:10 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Mar-87 06:46:01 EST
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 32

I'm taking an informal poll which concerns the types of user  lo-
gin  names  people use on their Unix systems.  First, let me pro-
vide some background.  I work on a Sun system which consists of 2
diskless clients (Sun-3/160's) and a file server (Sun-3/180).  In
addition, we have numerous VAXen and MicroVAXen, all running VMS.
We also have a large IBM MVS system, a VM/CMS system, and a CRAY.

Until recently, userids on the  Suns  consisted  of  users'  last
names.   Our IBM systems use userids which are unique 6-character
alphanumeric codes obtained by taking a  user's  Social  Security
Number  base  36 (or something like that).  As far as the user is
concerned, it's a random userid (e.g. QZX1RS).  In  the  interest
of  security. the powers that be have decided to use this type of
userid on the Sun system.  Naturally, the Sun users balked.  I've
tried  to reason with the system administrators, but to no avail.
I pointed out that enforcing  stricter  password  usage  measures
would  be  a  better  solution  (e.g.  password  aging, computer-
generated passwords, minimum length passwords,  etc).   I  notice
that  nearly every contributor to unix-wizards has a userid which
consists of either the user's last name, first name, initials, or
some  combination  of  these.  Surely you guys are concerned with
security?! (the response I got  was  that  csnet  users  are  all
university  types  (and  I  guess  I  was supposed to assume that
university types aren't security-conscious)).

Can anyone come to my defense?  Thanks for your time.
_________________________________________________
|Jim Marselle        | Phone: (313) 986-1413    |
|GM Research Labs    | csnet: marselle@gmr.com  |
|30500 Mound Road    |                          |
|Warren, MI 48090    |                          |
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