From c483c5c82c129b51ef6068fad3d3f0fbca1f5df1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ludovic Courtès Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2019 13:55:41 +0100 Subject: doc: Better explain the 'password' field of . * doc/guix.texi (User Accounts): Provide an example use of 'crypt', and mention the security implications. --- doc/guix.texi | 29 ++++++++++++++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi index 9fb5cff06d..7fcfcb1454 100644 --- a/doc/guix.texi +++ b/doc/guix.texi @@ -10695,6 +10695,7 @@ account. System accounts are sometimes treated specially; for instance, graphical login managers do not list them. @anchor{user-account-password} +@cindex password, for user accounts @item @code{password} (default: @code{#f}) You would normally leave this field to @code{#f}, initialize user passwords as @code{root} with the @command{passwd} command, and then let @@ -10702,11 +10703,29 @@ users change it with @command{passwd}. Passwords set with @command{passwd} are of course preserved across reboot and reconfiguration. -If you @emph{do} want to have a preset password for an account, then -this field must contain the encrypted password, as a string. -@xref{crypt,,, libc, The GNU C Library Reference Manual}, for more information -on password encryption, and @ref{Encryption,,, guile, GNU Guile Reference -Manual}, for information on Guile's @code{crypt} procedure. +If you @emph{do} want to set an initial password for an account, then +this field must contain the encrypted password, as a string. You can use the +@code{crypt} procedure for this purpose: + +@example +(user-account + (name "charlie") + (home-directory "/home/charlie") + (group "users") + + ;; Specify a SHA-512-hashed initial password. + (password (crypt "InitialPassword!" "$6$abc"))) +@end example + +@quotation Note +The hash of this initial password will be available in a file in +@file{/gnu/store}, readable by all the users, so this method must be used with +care. +@end quotation + +@xref{Passphrase Storage,,, libc, The GNU C Library Reference Manual}, for +more information on password encryption, and @ref{Encryption,,, guile, GNU +Guile Reference Manual}, for information on Guile's @code{crypt} procedure. @end table @end deftp -- cgit 1.4.1