[solved] Password hashing

Hello,
I'm having an issue with my password hashing. In /etc/shadow all the passwords hashes start with $1$. The security people want me to change it so the password hash starts with $5$ or $6$. So this is what I did to fix this.
I changed CRYPT_DEFAULT for 1 to 6

 CRYPT_DEFAULT=6

When I create a new account, the account uses the new password hashing method, but when I change an existing accounts password it still uses the old method. I'm thinking that I need to restart something but I don't know what.

Any help would be great.

---------- Post updated at 01:04 PM ---------- Previous update was at 12:04 PM ----------

---------- Post updated at 01:41 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:04 PM ----------

Ok I have the answer now.

To set the password with the new hash you have to remove the old password 1st. You do that by using the -d option.

passwd -d root
passwd root
New Password:
re-enter new password:
password: password successfully changed for root

Now the password hash starts with $6$

I hope this helps someone

2 Likes