Change passwd via web

[Stephen Langasek]

On Fri, 27 Aug 1999 "Paul L. Lussier" <plussier at baynetworks.com> wrote:

> In a message dated: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 01:41:46 +1000
> Rakesh Jain said:

> >I am looking for a cgi script which can be used to change the smbpasswd via
> >web browser. Anyone done this already ?. Any pointers will he appreciated
> >much.

> I haven't done this, but I can't believe it would be all that hard to do,
> a simple shell script combined with a call to crypt (or whatever encrypts 
> netbios passwords) then sed the replacement into the file.  Perl would
> probably be better.

> Though, in general, I don't recommend doing this via the web unless you plan 
> on using a secure server, since web traffic is easily intercepted!

Modifying files directly from the CGI is probably not the best choice.  To
make sure these password changes are done safely and properly, it's easiest
to have the CGI call the smbpasswd command to do the actual changes.  This
eliminates any worries about locking problems, suid root troubles, changes
to the smbpasswd file format, etc...

-Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer