Download: passwd_sync-1.01.tar.gz

Perl script passwd_sync.pl is a cgi-bin script and will allow you to  setup UNIX (NIS) and Windows (Domain controller) password simultaneously using web form. This will be useful for UNIX/Windows mix environment where users wants to sync their Windows and UNIX passwords in one shot.

Prerequisite

If you are running Redhat 8.0, make sure you install perl-setuid RPM, which is not installed by default.
• You need basic  perl distribution and also install Bundle::Expect   perl module from CPAN (http://www.cpan.org ). If you have latest perl distribution and have CPAN module installed, you can install this module on the fly by typing following command.

     (First time it will ask several question and setup for module download site etc.  Finally you get cpan> prompt )

        cpan> install Bundle::Expect
     (This will locate above module and install automatically for you.)
 

• You need samba distribution.  ( http://www.samba.org ) Specifically smbpasswd(1) program. You don't have to run samba server for this. All you need is just client program /usr/bin/smbpasswd

• Web server (http://www.apache.org ) from where you can run cgi-bin scripts.

• Web browser (Any latest web browser).

How this works:
    Unix password in NIS environment can be changed by using command yppasswd(1). Samba distribution provides a client program smbpasswd(1) on UNIX  which will allow to change password on remote windows machine ( Domain controller)  using command line. Both of these commands normally  need user interaction to complete. Since it is very tricky or troublesome using above command without user interaction. It is easier if we could interface this with  a feature like UNIX expect(1) command. Fortunately  there is an  Expect.pm module for Perl which is used in this perl program to run yppasswd(1) and smbpasswd(1) without user interaction.
 
 

Setup:

• Install web server (example apache). Make sure you have Perl installed there also.
• Install Bundle::Expect perl module from CPAN.
• Install Samba distribution (if not already installed)  to get smbpasswd(1) program.
• Make sure following command works:

Try Changing UNIX (NIS) password for user 'xyz'  first using command line (nisserver is Master NIS server)

---

%   yppasswd xyz
Changing NIS account information for xyz on nisserver.
Please enter old password:
Changing NIS password for xyz  on nisserver.
Please enter new password:
Please retype new password:

The NIS password has been changed on nisserver.

---

Try Changing password on Windows Domain controller ( domainhost )  using smbpasswd.

---

%   smbpasswd -U xyz   -r domainhost
Old SMB password:
New SMB password:
Retype new SMB password:
Password changed for user xyz

---

Green: Command you need to type
Blue:  Arguments, will be different for you
Red: Prompt in Red *MUST*  match in your case also. Since they are hard coded  in passwd_sync.pl script. If not then you need to change perl script and replace these prompts with what you get actually on your system.

---

• Download passwd_sync distribution, unzip, untar it. passwd_sync.pl  is a perl cgi-bin program.  Put this in your cgi-bin directory, edit perl variables in "Edit_Section"  as per your site in this file.
• This script must be run as root . It will change effective UID as user name supplied in the web  form and run yppasswd(1) and smbpasswd(1) commands with user privilege. Since most webserver run with non-root users hence this script must be owned by root and setuid bit must be set.

        This is a security risk and you have been warned already!!

•  Users can now use this script from web by accessing cgi-bin something like http://cgibinserver/cgi-bin/passwd_sync.pl and change passwords.

Screen Shots:

Version History:

• First Release (v 1.0): Sept/ 07/2001
• BugFix (v 1.01) : Sept/11/2001 : Added soft_close() calls for expect spawned processes. Fixed for few OS.