The account database consists of the files (listed with the appropriate access permissions) described in this section.
| File: | Owner: | Group: | Permissions: |
|---|---|---|---|
| /etc/passwd | root | root | rw- r-- r-- |
| /etc/group | root | root | rw- r-- r-- |
| /etc/shadow | root | root | rw- --- --- |
| /etc/.pwlock | root | root | rw- r-- r-- |
Note that anyone can read /etc/passwd. This lets standard utilities find information about users. The hashed password isn't stored in this file; it's stored in /etc/shadow, which only root has permission to read. This helps prevent attempts to decrypt the passwords.