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Passwords
In some cases, passwords may be blank, meaning you only need to press enter. In other cases it
can be removed altogether so you are never even prompted to input your password. Removing the
password may not always be a good idea. Since you have the source code, Linux allows you the option
to prevent users from either having no password or having to just press return. Since we are talking
here about security
and accounts without passwords are not very secure, we'll restrict
ourselves to talking about accounts that have passwords.
On many systems (including many Linux
versions) you cannot force users to use (or not use) specific passwords. As a system administrator
it is your responsibility to not only enforce a strong password policy, but to educate your users as
to why this is important. Later, we'll go over some examples of what happens when users are not
aware of the issues involved with password security.
If you write your password on to a
Post-It
and stick it on your monitor, no operating system
in the
world can do anything about it. But what about cases where you inadvertently give someone your
password? This happens when users choose passwords that are easily guessed by someone trying to
break in. Often users will choose passwords that are easy to remember, such as their license plate
number or spouse's birthday. Linux cannot do anything to keep you from using your license plate
number as a password. However, some features can be easily built in to limit what you can use as a
password.
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