[BusyBox] how does passwd work

[Felix Domke]

Ralph Siemsen wrote:
> If the code is to be at all portable, assumptions like this should not
> be made.  The password might be DES with salt, might be md5, might be
> stored in /etc/shadow and instead of /etc/password, etc.
> A relatively painless way to handle setting the password from a script
> is to make use of the passwd command - it will know the correct format
> on the system it runs on.  I have used the following approach:
I've understanded the term "javascript" as he wants to "encrypt" (i.e.
hash) the password on client-side, avoiding to transfer the plaintext
password at all.

This can't be done in a portable way, you could transfer both md5 and
des and look for a portable method to store the result into the
corresponding file.

However, i suggest using a https server and do the stuff server-side, as
Ralph suggested. This would allow a malicious administrator to view the
password (by hacking the CGI), but would be secure otherwise.

I remember using a tool which was able to receive
"username:password"-strings on stdin, which shipped with an old SuSE
Linux. However, i wasn't able to either remember it's name nor to find
something similiar on my system. It was quite useful, dunno however if
busybox support something like this.

Felix