Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH v10) — Question 55

A hacker has managed to gain access to a Linux host and stolen the password file from /etc/passwd. How can he use it?

Answer options

• A. The file reveals the passwords to the root user only.
• B. The password file does not contain the passwords themselves.
• C. He cannot read it because it is encrypted.
• D. He can open it and read the user ids and corresponding passwords.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

The correct answer is B because the /etc/passwd file contains user account information, but it does not store the actual passwords; instead, it holds password hashes. Options A and D are incorrect as they misrepresent the information in the file, and option C is wrong since the file can be read, but it does not contain plain text passwords.