Project 10-5

In this hands-on project, you observe user account databases on Fedora Linux and create a

user account using command-line utilities.

1. On your Fedora Linux virtual machine, switch to a command-line terminal (tty2) by

pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2 and log in to the terminal using the user name of root and the

password of LNXrocks!.

2. At the command prompt, type less /etc/passwd and press Enter. Where is the line

that describes the root user located in this file? Where is the line that describes the user1

user in this file? How many daemon accounts are present? What is in the password field

for all accounts? When finished, press the q key to quit the less utility.

3. At the command prompt, type ls -l /etc/passwd and press Enter. Who is the owner

and group owner of this file? Who has permission to read this file?

4. At the command prompt, type less /etc/shadow and press Enter. What is in the

password field for the root user and user1 user accounts? What is in the password field

for most daemon accounts? Press the q key to quit the less utility.

5. At the command prompt, type ls -l /etc/shadow and press Enter. Who is the owner

and group owner of this file? Who has permission to read this file? Compare the permissions

for /etc/shadow to those of /etc/passwd obtained in Step 3 and explain the

difference.

6. At the command prompt, type pwunconv and press Enter. Next, type less /etc/

shadow at the command prompt and press Enter. What error message do you receive?

Why?

7. At the command prompt, type less /etc/passwd and press Enter. What is in the

password field for all accounts? Why? When finished, press the q key to quit the less

utility.

8. At the command prompt, type pwconv and press Enter. What does the pwconv command

do?

9. Next, type less /etc/shadow at the command prompt and press Enter. Verify that

the file has contents and press q when finished. Next, type less /etc/passwd at the

command prompt and press Enter. Verify that the file has contents and press q when

finished.

10. At the command prompt, type cat /etc/default/useradd and press Enter. What

is the default shell used when creating users? What is the default location of the skel

directory used when creating users? Where are user home directories created by default?

11. At the command prompt, type ls a /etc/skel and press Enter. What files are

stored in this directory? What is the purpose of this directory when creating users?

12. At the command prompt, type cp /etc/inittab /etc/skel and press Enter to create

a copy of the inittab file in the /etc/skel directory.

13. At the command prompt, type useradd m bozo and press Enter. What does the m

option specify? From where is the default shell, home directory information taken?

14. At the command prompt, type less /etc/login.defs and press Enter. Observe the

entries and descriptive comments. Did you need to specify the m option to the useradd

command in Step 13? Explain. Press the q key to quit the less utility.

15. At the command prompt, type cat /etc/passwd and press Enter. What shell and

home directory does bozo have? What is bozos UID?

16. At the command prompt, type cat /etc/shadow and press Enter. Does bozo have a

password? Can bozo log in to the system?

17. At the command prompt, type passwd bozo and press Enter. Enter the password of

LNXrocks! and press Enter. Enter the password of LNXrocks! again to confirm and

press Enter.

18. At the command prompt, type ls -a /home/bozo and press Enter. How many files

are in this directory? Compare this list to the one obtained in Step 11. Is the inittab

file present?

19. Type exit and press Enter to log out of your shell