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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
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<!ENTITY COMMANDNAME "password-prompt">
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<!ENTITY TIMESTAMP "2008-09-30">
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<!ENTITY % common SYSTEM "../common.ent">
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<refentry xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
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<title>Mandos Manual</title>
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<!-- NWalsh’s docbook scripts use this to generate the footer: -->
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<productname>Mandos</productname>
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<productnumber>&version;</productnumber>
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<date>&TIMESTAMP;</date>
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<firstname>Björn</firstname>
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<surname>Påhlsson</surname>
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<email>belorn@fukt.bsnet.se</email>
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<firstname>Teddy</firstname>
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<surname>Hogeborn</surname>
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<email>teddy@fukt.bsnet.se</email>
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<holder>Teddy Hogeborn</holder>
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<holder>Björn Påhlsson</holder>
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<xi:include href="../legalnotice.xml"/>
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<refentrytitle>&COMMANDNAME;</refentrytitle>
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<manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum>
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<refname><command>&COMMANDNAME;</command></refname>
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<refpurpose>Prompt for a password and output it.</refpurpose>
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<command>&COMMANDNAME;</command>
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<arg choice="plain"><option>--prefix <replaceable
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>PREFIX</replaceable></option></arg>
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<arg choice="plain"><option>-p </option><replaceable
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>PREFIX</replaceable></arg>
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<arg choice="opt"><option>--debug</option></arg>
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<command>&COMMANDNAME;</command>
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<arg choice="plain"><option>--help</option></arg>
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<arg choice="plain"><option>-?</option></arg>
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<command>&COMMANDNAME;</command>
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<arg choice="plain"><option>--usage</option></arg>
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<command>&COMMANDNAME;</command>
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<arg choice="plain"><option>--version</option></arg>
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<arg choice="plain"><option>-V</option></arg>
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<refsect1 id="description">
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<title>DESCRIPTION</title>
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All <command>&COMMANDNAME;</command> does is prompt for a
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password and output any given password to standard output. This
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is not very useful on its own. This program is really meant to
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run as a plugin in the <application>Mandos</application>
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client-side system, where it is used as a fallback and
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alternative to retrieving passwords from a <application
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>Mandos</application> server.
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This program is little more than a <citerefentry><refentrytitle
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>getpass</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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wrapper, although actual use of that function is not guaranteed
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<refsect1 id="options">
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<title>OPTIONS</title>
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This program is commonly not invoked from the command line; it
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is normally started by the <application>Mandos</application>
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plugin runner, see <citerefentry><refentrytitle
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>plugin-runner</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum>
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</citerefentry>. Any command line options this program accepts
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are therefore normally provided by the plugin runner, and not
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<term><option>--prefix=<replaceable
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>PREFIX</replaceable></option></term>
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<replaceable>PREFIX</replaceable></option></term>
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Prefix string shown before the password prompt.
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<term><option>--debug</option></term>
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Enable debug mode. This will enable a lot of output to
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standard error about what the program is doing. The
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program will still perform all other functions normally.
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<term><option>--help</option></term>
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<term><option>-?</option></term>
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Gives a help message about options and their meanings.
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<term><option>--usage</option></term>
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Gives a short usage message.
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<term><option>--version</option></term>
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<term><option>-V</option></term>
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Prints the program version.
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<refsect1 id="exit_status">
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<title>EXIT STATUS</title>
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If exit status is 0, the output from the program is the password
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as it was read. Otherwise, if exit status is other than 0, the
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program has encountered an error, and any output so far could be
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corrupt and/or truncated, and should therefore be ignored.
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<refsect1 id="environment">
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<title>ENVIRONMENT</title>
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<term><envar>cryptsource</envar></term>
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<term><envar>crypttarget</envar></term>
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If set, these environment variables will be assumed to
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contain the source device name and the target device
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mapper name, respectively, and will be shown as part of
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These variables will normally be inherited from
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>plugin-runner</refentrytitle>
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<manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum></citerefentry>, which will
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normally have inherited them from
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<filename>/scripts/local-top/cryptroot</filename> in the
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initial <acronym>RAM</acronym> disk environment, which will
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have set them from parsing kernel arguments and
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<filename>/conf/conf.d/cryptroot</filename> (also in the
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initial RAM disk environment), which in turn will have been
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created when the initial RAM disk image was created by
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>/usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/cryptroot</filename>, by
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extracting the information of the root file system from
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<filename >/etc/crypttab</filename>.
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This behavior is meant to exactly mirror the behavior of
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<command>askpass</command>, the default password prompter.
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None are known at this time.
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<refsect1 id="example">
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<title>EXAMPLE</title>
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Note that normally, command line options will not be given
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directly, but via options for the Mandos <citerefentry
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><refentrytitle>plugin-runner</refentrytitle>
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<manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
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Normal invocation needs no options:
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<userinput>&COMMANDNAME;</userinput>
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Show a prefix before the prompt; in this case, a host name.
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It might be useful to be reminded of which host needs a
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password, in case of <acronym>KVM</acronym> switches, etc.
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<!-- do not wrap this line -->
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<userinput>&COMMANDNAME; --prefix=host.example.org:</userinput>
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<!-- do not wrap this line -->
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<userinput>&COMMANDNAME; --debug</userinput>
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<refsect1 id="security">
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<title>SECURITY</title>
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On its own, this program is very simple, and does not exactly
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present any security risks. The one thing that could be
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considered worthy of note is this: This program is meant to be
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run by <citerefentry><refentrytitle
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>plugin-runner</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum>
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</citerefentry>, and will, when run standalone, outside, in a
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normal environment, immediately output on its standard output
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any presumably secret password it just received. Therefore,
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when running this program standalone (which should never
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normally be done), take care not to type in any real secret
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password by force of habit, since it would then immediately be
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To further alleviate any risk of being locked out of a system,
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the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>plugin-runner</refentrytitle>
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<manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum></citerefentry> has a fallback
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mode which does the same thing as this program, only with less
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<refsect1 id="see_also">
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<title>SEE ALSO</title>
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypttab</refentrytitle>
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<manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>mandos-client</refentrytitle>
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<manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>plugin-runner</refentrytitle>
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<manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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added
removed
plugins.d/password-prompt.xml
