How to access /etc/shadow file without root

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. I am reading a book on ethical hacking, and it has some examples in Python which I won't post here unless asked since this isn't Stack Overflow.

It is readable only by the root user or super user. To see this feature in action, access a root shell and run following commands. In Ubuntu Linux, by default root account is disabled. If you are following tutorial on Ubuntu Linux, access a super user shell and run following commands. But when we performed the same action from a root user or super user account, shell allowed to it.

How to access /etc/shadow file without root

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. The system I am using is a CentOS 7. Are these steps that I am following correct? Please let me know, and I can provide additional information if needed. Changing an owner group of such important file could even break some things, which is dangerous. Another problem here is that you gave this right to Nginx , a web server. Which, I suppose, runs some web application. This may seem counterproductive, but this is the way all serious systems do such things: they include private secure proxy service which does all security checks and web front end only can talk to this proxy service to have some access to sensitive data or do other sensitive things. For example, this is the way Proxmox VE is built: there is pvedaemon which does dangerous things, and pveproxy a web server only talks to pvedaemon when it needs to do such things. The third problem is that you access this file at all. What you intend to do? This file is a part of PAM suite. What if some system authentication is modified so it is not using a shadow file, or it is moved?

The PAM exists in part for this to be unneccessary.

It has been a while since I worked on anything PAM related, but I recently became interested in exploring how to convert the su binary to work with capabilities only, and not require it being setuid-root. Recall, in this environment , being root comes with no super user privilege. However, we shouldn't ever forget that root owns a lot of system files! That was a set of applications those of us, that originally developed Linux-PAM, wrote to prototype modules and libpam improvements against. I had a prototyping project related to libcap now and, while a couple of decades had elapsed, it was fun to take that code out for a spin again. Which is what we actually need to have su correctly function.

Ask questions, find answers and collaborate at work with Stack Overflow for Teams. Explore Teams. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. I am reading a book on ethical hacking, and it has some examples in Python which I won't post here unless asked since this isn't Stack Overflow. They can't copy it, open it; etc. Is there some brute force method? I don't know anything about these, where can I learn? In order to understand how a hacker could access this file you have to think like a hacker, mainly outside the box, of what most would consider to be "normal" methods for accessing a file. I've seen many examples throughout my career where developers or unknowledgeable sysadmins have run applications such as Tomcat or Apache as root.

How to access /etc/shadow file without root

It is readable only by the root user or super user. To see this feature in action, access a root shell and run following commands. In Ubuntu Linux, by default root account is disabled. If you are following tutorial on Ubuntu Linux, access a super user shell and run following commands.

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Improve this question. Page updated. Reserve filed is omitted. Building our fully capable su can be done as follows:. If require, a user account can be unlocked by setting a password in this field through passwd command. The third problem is that you access this file at all. We do not accept any kind of Guest Post. The captree command assumes that your system has built the captree utility. Hot Network Questions. Both characters! This configuration is intended to support only the privilege that su needs to do its work, and the source code can be audited with this in mind. Finally, to satisfy the purpose of this article, let's try that all again but in a PURE1E mode of operation.

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This filed sets the maximum allowed days between password changes. Browse other questions tagged linux nginx shadow. By default there is a grace period of seven days. That was a set of applications those of us, that originally developed Linux-PAM, wrote to prototype modules and libpam improvements against. This is the Fully Capable way. The system I am using is a CentOS 7. This field sets the number of days after password expiration to disable the account. Which is what we actually need to have su correctly function. Field Description john This is the username. However, since I had some memory of working with that code, I decided to refactor the version of su from that tar ball. Not the answer you're looking for?