/etc/passwd, username, password, and ssh

Ivan Dobrianov ivan@dobrianov.net
Tue Jun 18 02:16:00 GMT 2002


I have this really dumb question, but I could not find any document or 
mail that clarifies that issue:

o I install Cygwin. I am not "Administrator" in Windows terms, though I 
have admin privileges.

o All runs great until one day I decide to run sshd. I configure and 
then start /usr/sbin/sshd and all looks well.

o Now I try to login using ssh from a different [or the same] machine 
and I get a prompt:

Administrator@w2kts's password:

Huh? Password? Cygwin has never asked me for ANY password ever before! 
Which password does it want: the "real" Windows admin [which I don't 
know] or mine? Neither works.

o I go back to the host machine and type passwd:

~> passwd.exe
passwd: unknown user ivan dobrianov
~ > whoami
Administrator
~ > id
uid=500(Administrator) gid=513(None) groups=513(None)

Then I do:
/etc > mkpasswd.exe -d | egrep -i ivan >> passwd

which adds some more abra-cadabra-style entries, but the above commands 
still fail.

================================================
Now I am confused!

- What is the meaning and format of /ets/passwd in Cygwin? What are 
these long entries like:
Administrator:unused_by_nt/2000/xp:500:513:U-BUTTER\Administrator,S-1-5-21-1614895752-601609370-1417001333-500:/home/Administrator:/bin/bash

- How do I login as ANY user other then Administrator?

- How do I set a password for Administrator [or any other user].

- Are Cygwin users in one-to-one correspondence to Windows users and 
who/where/how stores the passwords. Can they be different?

BTW: I am not using NTSEC or NTEA, though trying NTSEC did not seem to 
help [and it messes up permissions]. Is this necessary? What if I don't 
have NTFS?

Thanks for any help!


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