Updated: 2025/Nov/16

Please read Privacy Policy. It's for your privacy.


CREDS_MSDOS(8)              System Manager's Manual             CREDS_MSDOS(8)

NAME
     creds_msdos - automatically add login credentials from MS-DOS partition

SYNOPSIS
     creds_msdos start

DESCRIPTION
     The creds_msdos rc.d script allows automatic addition of login
     credentials during boot using a special file found on the MS-DOS
     partition of a bootable image.  This script is not distributed with the
     normal system and is only included with pre-installed bootable images.
     The goal is to allow remote access of the system without having to edit
     the primary root file system (which may not be accessible from the host
     the image is being written from), but place this information in the MS-
     DOS partition that most platforms can easily access.

     Typically, an installable image (such as arm64.img) is written to an SD
     card or similar media, and has both a native FFS partition as well as an
     MS-DOS partition for booting.  If this script is enabled and has been
     pointed at the boot partition it will inspect the file creds.txt for any
     credentials to be added to the system.

     The following list gives the supported options in the credentials files.
     In all cases user is the username to be created, and the user will be
     added to the `wheel' group.

     sshkeyfile user keyfile
                 Look for the keyfile in the MS-DOS boot partition and merge
                 ssh keys from this file into user's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
                 file.

     sshkey user keystring
                 Add the keystring to the user's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.

     useraddpwhash user pwhash
                 Use pwhash as the users's password hash.

     useradd user password
                 Use password as the users's unencrypted raw password that
                 will be hashed.

                 This method is not recommended as it leaves unencrypted
                 passwords around until such time that the script runs.  If
                 this method is used then the creds.txt file will be shredded
                 and deleted using `rm -P' after the credentials are updated.

FILES
     /boot/creds.txt

SEE ALSO
     pwhash(1), rm(1), ssh(1), ssh_config(5), mount_msdos(8), sshd(8),
     useradd(8)

HISTORY
     The creds_msdos script appeared in NetBSD 9.0.

AUTHORS
     Matthew R. Green <mrg@eterna23.net>.

NetBSD 11.99                     June 10, 2019                    NetBSD 11.99