Dumb question about DES/MD5 in /etc/master.passwd

[Lowell Gilbert]

João Carlos Mendes Luís <jonny at jonny.eng.br> writes:

>    This question must be really dumb, but I cannot find its answer.
>
>    In a somewhat recently updated RELENG_6 FreeBSD, whenever I run the
> program /usr/bin/passwd to change an users password, it encrypts the
> password using DES.  I have already configured /etc/login.conf for
> MD5, but it still goes with DES:
>
> *$ grep passwd /etc/login.conf
>        :passwd_format=md5:\
> #       :passwd_format=des:\
> $*
>
>    What could I be doing wrong?
>
>    If that matters, this system has been receiving system and /etc
> upgrades since Sep/2003.  Maybe some old configuration has been left
> around...

I'm a little too lazy to confirm if this is still the case with the
openpam libraries, but it used to be the case that the passwd_format
variable was not consulted for changing passwords on existing
accounts; the same format was always used.  passwd_format would be
obeyed if there were *no* password on the account (in particular, the
first time a password was assigned).