2 comments on this post.

1. Robert Pogson says:

   September 25, 2008 at 9:08 am

   strange…

   program users;
   uses unix;
   var s:string;cd:longint;
   f:text;
   begin
   if paramcount<1 then writeln(‘usage: USERS list_of_users_file’)
   else
   begin
   assign(f,paramstr(1));reset(f);writeln(paramstr(1));
   while not eof(f) do
   begin readln(f,s);writeln(s);
   cd:=shell(‘useradd -m ‘+s);
   cd:=shell(‘usermod -U ‘+s);
   cd:=shell(‘usermod -U ‘+s)
   end;
   close(f)
   end

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2. Robert Pogson says:

   September 25, 2008 at 9:05 am

   Two years ago I set up a GNU/Linux system for a K-12 school. I manually created accounts for teachers but I generated 700 accounts automatically using apg, automatic password generator, and scripts. APG can generate password of specified lengths and crackability. I used it to generate 4-letter “pronounceable” passwords which I used for usernames and 8-letter “pronounceable” passwords as paswords. These were printed in duplicated on paper and the teacher would tear off the user/pass and give to a student while writing the name on the othe paper. Thus 700 accounts were created in 5 minutes and distributed to teachers in their mailboxes. Teachers distributed them to students.

   I used these Pascal programmes:
   program PASSWORDS;
   uses unix;
   var s,t,u:string;cd:longint;
   f,g:text;
   begin
   if paramcount<1 then writeln(‘usage: PASSWORDS list_of_passwords_file list_of_users_file’)
   else
   begin
   {passwords generated by apg -M l -m 6 -x 6 -y -n 100}
   assign(g,paramstr(1));reset(g);
   assign(f,paramstr(2));reset(f);writeln(paramstr(2));
   while not eof(f) do
   begin readln(f,s);write(s);readln(g,t);u:=t;delete(u,7,99);writeln(‘ ‘+u);delete(t,1,7);

   cd:=shell(‘usermod -p ‘+u+’ ‘+s);
   writeln(‘usermod -p ‘+u+’ ‘+s);

   end;
   close(f)
   end
   end.

   program users;
   uses unix;
   var s:string;cd:longint;
   f:text;
   begin
   if paramcount afile commands and ran these two scripts to generate an arbitrary number of accounts. OK, the passwords are not strong, but you can choose whatever level of security you want. I was just securing students from harassment by other students and I used pronounceability to reduce my headaches. I had to do only a few password resets and those were mostly for staff…

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