How do I view etc/passwd in Linux (Ubuntu)

Question

I changed directories to etc/ and I listed all the files in /etc/ with the ls command and I can see passwd and another file called passwd- but i don't know how to open them. when i type open passwd nothing happens. I want to access my passwd file so i can run a cracker against it to test the strength of my passwords,

Answer 1

While there are various programs to test password strength, (yahoo search) or use johntheripper. It honestly looks like your doing something kinda freaky deaky, and maybe even tweaky. I will tell you this, open is not a valid command. Good Luck!

P.S. The more numbers you have in your password, the stronger your password will be. And as a general rule, don't use dictionary words.

Answer 2

Make sure you're the owner of the system before you attempt this.

1. Log in as root

2. cd /etc

3. cat shadow

This will dump out the password hashes in your system.