Linux chkey command
On SunOS, the chkey command changes a user's secure RPC key pair.
Description
The chkey command changes a user's secure RPC public key and secret key pair. chkey prompts for the old secure-rpc password and verifies that it is correct by decrypting the secret key. If the user has not already used keylogin to decrypt and store the secret key with keyserv, chkey registers the secret key with the local keyserv daemon. If the secure-rpc password does not match the login password, chkey prompts for the login password. chkey then uses the login password to encrypt the user's secret Diffie-Hellman (192 bit) cryptographic key. chkey can also encrypt other Diffie-Hellman keys for authentication mechanisms configured using nisauthconf.
chkey ensures that the login password and the secure-rpc password (or passwords) are kept the same, thus enabling password shadowing.
The key pair can be stored in the /etc/publickey file, the NIS publickey map, or the NIS+ cred.org_dir table. If a new secret key is generated, it will be registered with the local keyserv daemon. However, only NIS+ can store Diffie-Hellman keys other than 192-bits.
Keys for specific mechanisms can be changed or reencrypted using the -m option followed by the authentication mechanism name. Multiple -m options can change one or more keys. However, only mechanisms configured using nisauthconf can be changed with chkey.
If the source of the publickey is not specified with the -s option, chkey consults the publickey entry in the name service switch configuration file (nsswitch.conf). If the publickey entry specifies one and only one source, then chkey changes the key in the specified name service. However, if multiple name services are listed, chkey cannot decide which source to update and displays an error message. The user should specify the source explicitly with the -s option.
Non-root users are not allowed to change their key pair in the files database.
Syntax
chkey [-p] [-s nisplus | nis | files | ldap] [-m <mechanism>]
Options
| -p | Re-encrypt the existing secret key with the user's login password. |
| -s nisplus | Update the NIS+ database. |
| -s nis | Update the NIS database. |
| -s ldap | Update the LDAP database. |
| -s files | Update the files database. |
| -m <mechanism> | Changes or re-encrypts the secret key for the specified mechanism. |
Related commands
keylogin — Decrypt a user's secret key on SunOS.