Using the Password Tool

In User-based authentication, the RealServer stores all passwords in an encrypted format. Passwords can be entered and changed through the RealServer Administration page. To manually change a user's password, the new password must first be encrypted using the Password tool, then copied into the appropriate field in the authentication database or text file. For information on the appropriate field in the database or text file, see Authentication Text File and Database Structure.

The command for using the password tool is
ppvpass <realm> <username> <new password>

where <realm> is the same word used as the Realm configuration setting in the server.cfg file, <username> is the username exactly as it is entered or will be entered in the authentication database or text file, and <new password> is the unencrypted password.

The resulting encrypted password will be displayed on the screen.

RealServer encrypts passwords with the MD5 encryption algorithm. It uses the form

MD5("User:ServerRealmFromConfig:Password").

On BSD systems and some other UNIX systems, you can generate these passwords with the command:

echo -n "User:Realm:Password" | md5

This encryption is described in the Digest Access Authentication RFC (RFC 2069).

© 1997 RealNetworks, Inc.