Summary

The command mkpasswd generates a password hash from the command line. We can use the resulting output in any application where an md5, des, or sha hash is required.

Details

Running mkpasswd with the options -m help displays the available hash methods:

jemurray@linux-host:~$ mkpasswd -m help
Available methods:
des	standard 56 bit DES-based crypt(3)
md5	MD5
sha-256	SHA-256
sha-512	SHA-512ZZ

Generate the SHA-512 hash with the password ’test':

jemurray@linux-host:~$ mkpasswd -m SHA-512
Password:
$6$DIv5K.HO$YhcGCcZGEipD6gmopK.rCYNTfUhNV5hsy9/LhT89odM0jd/lIyGgOX5l.v1hRFV.EDXeK/IRpYQNXgv0inmW50

In this example, the hash is added to a puppet manifest for managing user accounts:

	manageusers::add_user { jemurray:
		name    => "Jason E. Murray",
		uid      => "666",
		password => '$6$DIv5K.HO$YhcGCcZGEipD6gmopK.rCYNTfUhNV5hsy9/LhT89odM0jd/lIyGgOX5l.v1hRFV.EDXeK/IRpYQNXgv0inmW50',
		shell => "/bin/bash",
		groups => ['sudo', 'jemurray'],
		sshkeytype => "ssh-rsa",
		sshkey => "AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDeC4gqn+//nDrGAPS3Mj6IVf/U/oae4ge6m5HgO8mZhfpfHSzRFuRainH0iht+BtZO3dlAjRVchB8087hGt2h2yQM5yNlXW1Qh8YnmzPwAKRzmOI9ry3TZv+SSRbn3IUcdCBTn
PLKUszRftK00WjQypVtJLZHkqHFdH7Z/BDFrid1YvI6E3vKmbZUTElYmJYdu67Mg7T8nm6RgkKX2ZvWp9x6+M0WojAcfmlPP4Hkq3dJ9nW71+xVwDP4JLUCPVZLy+fAvDVwH/0RUoXl4IH8+M6UVYduTJmmcb1qV2bQDXQ7MNihG8MEurGu8Rk32WNItpjb
EdcK0eRoT5KjxpYo/"
	}