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Home Linux Community Forums Programming and Development Kernel Development What Linus actually did and how safe the passwords are in Linux KERNEL?


Link to this post 25 Jan 12


Recently, I am confused with some concepts in Linux,

1. When I read man pages some pages have the author names. And the commercial apps like vlc, Mozilla and so on are from concern manufactures. Most of apps are under developed by some one or by community and integrated with Distributions.

so, What exactly Torvalds did/wrote ? In other words, what exactly the Linux Kernel is?
If I use "c" pgms and some device drivers for my use, Can I say that I use Linux or I know Linux ?

Bcoz, most of the questions out here in other posts are totally new to me, and making me to think that
for my "c" pgm , I am using a Linux distribution which has "gcc", and am not using/learning Linux? right?

2. Linux kernel source is an open source. So, how the passwords are protected ? If a person see the code section of password storing, can't that person do reverse operation to get the password ?

Link to this post 25 Jan 12

1. Linus was the first person to write drivers for the Linux kernel, however most kernel components are now written by others and approved by Linus and his team. The Linux kernel itself is a set of drivers that tell the software how to interact with the hardware. By using an operating system that uses the Linux kernel you are using Linux, however the tools that various distros/operating system choose to use differ so the management tools may differ for different linux based distributions.

2. The passwords are stored using a one-way hash function so ideally they cannot be reverse engineered as covered in http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/docs/howto/other-formats/html_single/Shadow-Password-HOWTO.html#s2 . Pretty much as secure operations that use passwords implement a one-way hash so that it cannot be reversed, however if someone has the hash they can run a hash table using the same mechanism and compare values to find the original password string.

Link to this post 25 Jan 12

1. Thanks. It feels better that I can say I use Linux

2. Hmm... That is interesting to read that link. Need to read more about how passwords are managed .
And if possible, if you get time, edit the post with a space b/w "in" and the link.

May be some people directly hit the link without seeing properly and wont get anything.

Thanks Matt,

Link to this post 25 Jan 12

the link has been corrected, sorry for my typo.

Link to this post 25 Jan 12

1 - Linux wrote the first lines of the KERNEL(=linux), that is the specific software to "talk" to the hardware (and many many other things)
2 - A kernel has nothing to do with passwords, that's an applications problem

Link to this post 27 Jan 12

1. so, actually kind of Device Drivers?
I searched in net and it is going on......

2. Is it? so, whats your opinion about the best Application that you know for passwords ?

Thanks you both guys...

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