SME Server 7 password check and settings

Placeholder, to be added to 1 of the FAQ's

From: the SF.net mailing archives

Authors: Gordon Rowell, Shad Lords

(Edited by Gordon Rowell to reflect 7.0 settings)

the passwordstrength db has been setup to require the
following

Admin=strong
Ibays=strong
Users=strong

Before there were no password checks in place for any of
them.

The definition of each is as follows:

Strong - Must pass all default cracklib tests and all "normal" tests.
Normal - Must have at least 1 digit (\d), 1 upper ([A-Z]), 1
lower ([a-z]), 1 special char (\W) and be of length greater
than 6.
None - no password checking

The password you supplied for ibays needs to pass the
normal rules.  It doesn't contain a special character.  It might
however pass the strong (cracklib) test thought.


HOW TO CHANGE THE PASSWORD SETTINGS:

Let"s find out what db entry we need to modify:

 [gordonr@six gordonr]$ sudo grep -i password /home/e-smith/db/configuration
 DialupUserPassword=userpassword
 PasswordSet=yes
 passwordstrength=configuration|Admin|none|Ibays|none|User|none
 sshd=service|PasswordAuthentication|yes|PermitRootLogin|yes|access|public|status|enabled

----Addition
Actually, that one is better written as:

     sudo /sbin/e-smith/db configuration show | grep -i password

 or, in a more compact, but less readable form:

     sudo /sbin/e-smith/db configuration print  | grep -i password

 The DBs are currently text files, but it is possible they may not be at
 some time in the future.

 They are also very likely to be relocated from /home/e-smith.

 The "db" and "config" commands will still work even if either/both of
 these changes happen.
----

 OK, so we want to modify the "passwordstrength" db entry, and the "User"
 property of that.

 Let"s "show" it first to see what the fields look like:

 [gordonr@six gordonr]$ sudo /sbin/e-smith/db configuration show
 passwordstrength
 passwordstrength=configuration
     Admin=none
     Ibays=none
     Users=none

 Or, for the main "configuration" db, you can also use the "config" shortcut:

 [gordonr@six gordonr]$ sudo /sbin/e-smith/config show passwordstrength
 passwordstrength=configuration
     Admin=none
     Ibays=none
     Users=none

 Let"s show the individual property:

 [gordonr@six gordonr]$ sudo /sbin/e-smith/db configuration getprop
 passwordstrength Users
 none

 And now, let"s set the property to "strong":

 [gordonr@six gordonr]$ sudo /sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop
 passwordstrength Users strong

 And check it:

 [gordonr@six gordonr]$ sudo /sbin/e-smith/db configuration getprop
 passwordstrength Users
 strong

 Be careful - you can break things by setting the wrong
 key/property/value in the config db.

 The keys, property names and values are case sensitive. I"ve thought for
 a while that they shouldn"t be.

 Thanks,

 Gordon