shadow file contains "!" instead of root hash

Question

I'm trying to understand how to crack passwords from shadow file and I see the root user contains the following content on /etc/shadow:

root:!:17888:0:99999:7:::

What does It mean? How can I crack this password using john?

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 09 '22 at 08:19

10

The ! indicates that the account has no usable password. You cannot crack it.

This information can be obtained from the documentation installed on your system. See man 5 shadow and search for !

edited Mar 09 '22 at 08:19

Stephen Kitt

answered Mar 09 '22 at 08:05

roaima

Beat me to it! It's worth noting that `man 5 shadow` explicitly mentions `!`. – Marcus Müller Mar 09 '22 at 08:07

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 09 '22 at 10:58

0

Many systems intentionally disable password based login as root. This is what the ! is for.

To become root on these systems one may use sudo.

answered Mar 09 '22 at 10:58

ctrl-alt-delor

2 Answers2