pwd module vs Linux shadow passwords

[Sean 'Shaleh' Perry]

On 02-Apr-2001 Siggy Brentrup wrote:
> "John W. Baxter" <jwbaxter at olympus.net> writes:
> 
>> Using Python 1.5.2 (and earlier) on BSDi, the pwd module's getpw...
>> functions are able to retrieve the encrypted password (from
>> /etc/master.passwd) if run as root.
>> 
>> Using Python 1.5.2 and 2.1b1 on Linux (RH 6.2), the functions do not
>> similarly dig the encrypted password out of /etc/shadow.
>> 
>> Is the latter action intentional, or is something not being set up
> 
> It's the main point of shadow passwords, cf.
> 
> http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-2000-07/lw-07-shadowpasswords.html
> 

however, one still needs a way to access the password -- i.e. a pop daemon
written in python.