Re: Master Password

[Alan Mead <adm ipat com>]

At 09:47 PM 4/17/99 -0800, you wrote:

>I am sysadmin of my system.  As root, I can go anywhere I
>want.  But for some things, I have to be a user.  For instance,
>I get a call from UserX wanting me to go into his mail and
>check it out.

Well here's a thought:  back up /etc/passwd, change the user's password to
a password of your choosing, do whatever, then put /etc/passwd.saved back.
It would be nice if you could lock /etc/passwd during this time but how
often do your user's modify their password (I cannot on my ISP).  And if
you're worried about losing changes, just transfer the user's encrypted
password back.  I bet you could do this in perl pretty easily.
---
Alan D. Mead  /  Research Scientist  /  adm ipat com
Institute for Personality and Ability Testing
1801 Woodfield Dr  /  Savoy IL 61874 USA
217-352-4739 (v)  /  217-352-9674 (f)