NET::OpenSSH and /etc/passwd

mlebel has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello everyone, after searching for an answer to this and only finding something that seemed only for 'scp', I wonder if It can be done with net::openssh. I know it is a bad idea to keep passwords inside scripts or config files therefore I need a better way to handle this.

My question is this: Is it possible to use /etc/passwd to provide the password to login to ssh sessions using net::openssh? If so, how would one go about this?

I am aware that I can use public key's to make this happen but I would find it easier to use /etc/passwd instead.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Marc

Comment on NET::OpenSSH and /etc/passwd

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Re: NET::OpenSSH and /etc/passwd by cursion (Pilgrim) on Apr 18, 2012 at 17:39 UTC
You don't need to mess with passwords. Set up a password-less login with ssh via some page like this: http://www.linuxproblem.org/art_9.html	[reply]
Re: NET::OpenSSH and /etc/passwd by zwon (Abbot) on Apr 18, 2012 at 17:31 UTC
No, it is not possible. `/etc/passwd` doesn't contain any passwords, `/etc/shadow` contains passwords' hashes which can't be used instead of passwords. You can store the password in a config file, or inside your script, though as you already know a better idea is to use public keys.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: NET::OpenSSH and /etc/passwd by mlebel (Hermit) on Apr 18, 2012 at 18:38 UTC
Thank you both for your explanation and clarification. I have reviewed the link and I will be proceeding with that method. Cheers	[reply]