Page 90 - DCAP602_NETWORK_OPERATING_SYSTEMS_I

Network Operating Systems-I

notes When you click on Accept, Linuxconf will prompt you to enter the password. You’ll have to
re-type the password, to prevent unusable passwords caused by typos. Passwords must be at
least six characters in length, but you can increase the required length and set other parameters
for users’ passwords at the Users Accounts => Policies => Password & Account Policies screen.
Good passwords contain a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. A password
should use both upper case and lower case letters. Don’t use your username, your anniversary,
your social security number, your dog’s name, your middle name or the word root. Don’t use any
variation of a word associated with your account or with yourself. Don’t use a word that can be
found in a dictionary; dictionary words are easy to crack.
A simple technique for creating a password is to use the first letters from each word of a phrase
that is familiar to you (a line from a favorite song might be appropriate). Make a few letters
uppercase, and insert a few numbers and/or special characters in place of letters and you’ll have
a decent password.
Press the Accept button again when finished. The system will let you know if it thinks the
password is easy to crack; if you get a warning message, don’t use the password.

modifying a user account

Start Linuxconf by typing linuxconf at the shell prompt.
Open [Config] → [Users accounts] → [Normal] → [User accounts]. This will open the Users
accounts tab.
If you have more than 15 accounts on the system, Linuxconf will provide you with a filter screen.
You can use this to select a smaller range of accounts than the full list. To get the full list, select
Accept without changing any of the parameters. For detailed information on the various filters,
select the Help button on the Filter control screen.
Select the account you wish to modify. This will open the User information tab.

figure 4.17: user information screen

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