Posted: . At: 9:24 AM. This was 3 years ago. Post ID: 14838
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A good way to list valid users in the /etc/passwd file on Linux.


This one-liner will display all users with UIDs over 999 and under 2000. This includes valid users on an Ubuntu system but may be different on other machines.

┌──[jason@192.168.1.2][~/Documents]
└──╼  ╼ $ awk -F: '{if($3>999 && $3<2000)print $1,$3,$6}' /etc/passwd
jason 1000 /home/jason
kirk 1001 /home/kirk

This is a very good example of how to list multiple fields with awk.

This very complicated one-liner below will show all users in the /etc/shadow file that have actual passwords. This shows only valid users that can be used to log into the system.

┌──[jason@192.168.1.2][~/Documents]
└──╼  ╼ $ sudo awk -F: '{if($2 != "*" && $2 != "!" && $2 != "!!") print $1,$2}' /etc/shadow | grep "$6$"
root $6$GKxeRen.rYXhvr49$qb0VpZesUwfTc90HUVUXFtD.tfgnRv26qFQCahaeDShpXfy8UTYwlsvCMGPW6GPSF.nGYlTZgiFvADymCiv/T/
jason $6$wNzkQKNeYMeOZcQM$tvZYw/IDYG3BZ0RcmAZ3YYc311mSOQAdcpCWLOal7OjpBpLkfBgcOk0HSX06pKsRVw26GbaWcIFtjIQiyvfkI0
kirk $6$6Kkc/gtgE/Olz1ac$hAfyfKtknvmju.Z3l7r3lW1sS9kMPPXGJE9IYBbAh8plN4S/DN7RyxPC2/l5C0iL0fGu665jE268l0g.VB2Ui.

The /etc/login.defs file contains the maximum and minimum values for the automatic assignment of user ID numbers on Linux.

#
# Min/max values for automatic uid selection in useradd
#
UID_MIN			 1000
UID_MAX			60000
# System accounts
#SYS_UID_MIN		  100
#SYS_UID_MAX		  999
 
#
# Min/max values for automatic gid selection in groupadd
#
GID_MIN			 1000
GID_MAX			60000
# System accounts
#SYS_GID_MIN		  100
#SYS_GID_MAX		  999

This enables customization of the login parameters and various options regarding passwords. This is why Linux is so good on a server, the users may be controlled to a minute level.


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