[K12OSN] finding user passwords

[Les Mikesell]

On Thu, 2004-11-11 at 08:26, Will Hatch wrote:
> this is a sex offender program.  We reserve the right to have access to all student passwords, folders, history. I didn't mention this earlier.  Sorry about that.

The system administrator always has access to everything that isn't
encrypted, and rights to access can be delegated to others with
appropriate group memberships and file modes.  It is always a good
idea to make sure everyone is aware of this and the local policies about
using these rights.   However, there is a good argument against knowing
other passwords in that people very often re-use passwords on different
systems.  And, of course, any plain-text copy of any password increases
the chances that someone unauthorized will see or steal it.

---
  Les Mikesell
   les at futuresource.com