Users without a password?

[Smoot Carl-Mitchell]

On Fri, 2007-11-23 at 11:21 -0500, Caleb Marcus wrote:
> Thanks for trying, but it didn't work... it actually broke
> authentication, preventing anyone (not just the users on that list)
> from logging in. I just reversed the changes in recovery mode, and
> that fixed it.

In /etc/pam.d/common-auth change this:

auth    required        pam_unix.so nullok_secure

to:

auth    required        pam_unix.so nullok

An account with an empty password field in /etc/passwd will authenticate
without a password.  This allows passwordless accounts for all services,
so be aware of the security risks associated with this change.  A
reference for this flag is:

http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/pam-list/2005-08/0014.html

-- 
Smoot Carl-Mitchell
System/Network Architect
email: smoot at tic.com
cell: +1 602 421 9005
home: +1 480 922 7313