bug in yppasswd

[Annadiana Beaver]

I ran into a bug in 'yppasswd' a few weeks ago, which seemed to be a bit
of a variation on the one described by Dimitri.

However, in looking into it a bit further, so that I could accurately
describe it here, I find that it is most likely part of the same bug.

I first saw the problem because a user 'tess' had wished to change their
passwd and was given the message: couldn't change password

I poked around and found that if I moved the entry for 'tessting', which
had a "*" in place of the passwd string, AFTER the entry for 'tess', it
was then possible for 'tess' to change their passwd.

The account for 'tessting' had had the "*" in place of a passwd string so
that noone could log in to the account until they returned from a leave.
When there is a passwd string in place of the "*", and the longer entry is
BEFORE the shorter entry, yppasswd does exactly as Dimitri described.  It
eliminates the shorter username.

Since 'yppasswd' works as it should when 'tess' is found BEFORE 'tessting'
in the passwd file, my "bandaid" for the problem was to move the shorter
entry so that it is found first.

Question: Why does 'yppasswd' work on userNAME rather than UID?

	Annadiana Beaver
	Computer Facilities
	Advanced Decision Systems