NAME

       passmass - change password on multiple machines

SYNOPSIS

       passmass [ host1 host2 host3 ...  ]

INTRODUCTION

       Passmass  changes  a password on multiple machines.  If you have accounts on several machines that do not
       share password databases, Passmass can help you keep them all in sync.   This,  in  turn,  will  make  it
       easier to change them more frequently.

       When  Passmass  runs, it asks you for the old and new passwords.  (If you are changing root passwords and
       have equivalencing, the old password is not used and may be omitted.)

       Passmass understands the "usual" conventions.  Additional arguments may be used for tuning.  They  affect
       all  hosts which follow until another argument overrides it.  For example, if you are known as "libes" on
       host1 and host2, but "don" on host3, you would say:

            passmass host1 host2 -user don host3

       Arguments are:

              -user
                  User whose password will be changed.  By default, the current user is used.

              -rlogin
                  Use rlogin to access host.  (default)

              -slogin
                  Use slogin to access host.

              -ssh
                  Use ssh to access host.

              -telnet
                  Use telnet to access host.

              -program

                  Next argument is a program to run to set the password.  Default  is  "passwd".   Other  common
                  choices  are  "yppasswd" and "set passwd" (e.g., VMS hosts).  A program name such as "password
                  fred" can be used to create entries for new accounts (when run as root).

              -prompt
                  Next argument is a prompt suffix pattern.  This allows the script to know when  the  shell  is
                  prompting.  The default is "# " for root and "% " for non-root accounts.

              -timeout
                  Next  argument is the number of seconds to wait for responses.  Default is 30 but some systems
                  can be much slower logging in.

              -su

                  Next argument is 1 or 0.  If 1, you are additionally prompted for a  root  password  which  is
                  used  to  su  after  logging  in.  root's password is changed rather than the user's.  This is
                  useful for hosts which do not allow root to log in.

HOW TO USE

       The best way to run Passmass is to put the command in a one-line shell script or alias.  Whenever you get
       a  new  account on a new machine, add the appropriate arguments to the command.  Then run it whenever you
       want to change your passwords on all the hosts.

CAVEATS

       Using the same password on multiple hosts carries risks.  In particular, if the password can  be  stolen,
       then  all  of  your  accounts  are  at  risk.  Thus, you should not use Passmass in situations where your
       password is visible, such as across a network which hackers are known to eavesdrop.

       On the other hand, if you have enough accounts with different passwords, you may end up writing them down
       somewhere - and that can be a security problem.  Funny story: my college roommate had an 11"x13" piece of
       paper on which he had listed accounts and passwords all across the  Internet.   This  was  several  years
       worth  of  careful work and he carried it with him everywhere he went.  Well one day, he forgot to remove
       it from his jeans, and we found a perfectly blank sheet of paper when we took out the wash the  following
       day!

SEE ALSO

       "Exploring  Expect:  A  Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs" by Don Libes, O'Reilly and
       Associates, January 1995.

AUTHOR

       Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology

                                                 7 October 1993                                      PASSMASS(1)