[sf-lug] login account for Elise: Re: Volunteering

Michael Paoli michael.paoli at berkeley.edu
Tue Jul 15 00:43:15 PDT 2025 

Well, peeking on host to see if you've account there, looks like
account was set up,
but never got as far as setting password or ssh key for your account.

$ hostname; sed -ne
'/Elise/{s/^\(\([^:]*:\)\{4\}\)\([^:,]*\)[^:]*\(:.*\)$/\1\3[REDACTED]\4/p;}'
/etc/passwd
balug-sf-lug-v2.balug.org
elise01:x:8624:8624:Elise Scher[REDACTED]:/home/elise01:/usr/bin/bash
$ sudo grep '^elise01:' /etc/shadow
elise01:!*:20093:0:99999:7:::
$ sudo ls -ld ~elise01{,/.ssh{,/authorized_keys}}
ls: cannot access '/home/elise01/.ssh': No such file or directory
ls: cannot access '/home/elise01/.ssh/authorized_keys': No such file
or directory
drwxr-xr-x 2 elise01 elise01 4096 Mar 23  2020 /home/elise01
$ lastlog -u elise01
Username         Port     From                                       Latest
elise01
**Never logged in**
$

And peeking a bit, the older email bits would explain why there's no
valid password set on there:
On Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 11:09 PM Michael Paoli wrote:
Elise,

It's been 3 weeks now ... you've still not gotten as far as
logging in and changing your password.

You should do that as soon as feasible, since also, for your
convenience, the *temporary* password was emailed to you in
the clear.  Shouldn't remain the case that password was so
sent, and it's still not been changed!  Please change it
as soon as you can.

If you fail to change the password by end of Monday, local time
next week (that would be slightly over 4 weeks!), I may lock the
account for security (note that for many sites, typical security
policy, after a user's password is reset, they're forced to change
it - if they fail to change it within something between 72 hours
and 10 days, the account is then locked ... you're already a hair
past 21 days).

On Mon, Jul 14, 2025 at 11:35 PM Elise Scher <elise.scher01 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thank you.
> Well I am finally reading this again.
> I would like to help in small ways.
> I am also cashiering at a small local market for 5 years now. I am also teaching summer school.
>  Respectfully,
> Elise Scher
>
> On Thu, Apr 16, 2020 at 1:01 AM Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Taking this (also) to list, because - why not - and to illustrate some
>> points.
>>
>> References/excerpts - my response(/comment) bits in-line:
>>
>> > From: "Elise Scher" <elise.scher01 at gmail.com>
>> > Subject: Re: login account for Elise: Re: [sf-lug] Volunteering
>> > To: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>
>> > Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2020 12:18:13 -0700
>>
>> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#noprivate
>> Uh huh ... sorry, not your private free consultant.
>> If you've got a question highly specific to SF-LUG (or other
>> stuff on the BALUG VM), and especially that nobody else could
>> answer or even possibly answer, that might be reasonable to direct
>> only and specifically to me.  But even in such case, if others would
>> be interested, curious, or might want to know, and it's suitable for
>> public disclosure, still, it ought be on list, so others can learn of
>> and from it - and even find it later via searches and such.
>>
>> So, let's see ... SF-LUG list has ...
>> http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2020q2/014649.html
>> about 276 folks on there.  So, if you ask there, you might get
>> answer(s)/response(s) - even useful/correct ones there,
>> something on the order of 276 times faster than only asking
>> specifically me.  Even if that rough guestimate is off by a
>> decimal order of magnitude, you'd probably get results about 28
>> times faster by asking on-list.
>>
>> There's also this thing called The Internet, and Search Engines.
>> Perhaps you've heard.  With a bit of use of those, one can often
>> find answers well in excess of 276 times faster (and typically also more
>> numerous) - especially for questions that aren't highly specific to only
>> me knowing the answers, or (mostly) only folks on the SF-LUG list
>> knowing the answers.  "Of course", from "The Internet", typically about
>> 20% of what's found is anywhere from slightly incomplete/incorrect,
>> to downright wrong and dangerous.  But use of such skills
>> as critical thinking, checking sources, verification, reputation(s),
>> etc., are often highly useful to sort the wheat from the chaff.
>>
>> > So better
>> > to work in this then.
>> > My phone number is
>> > Will I be able to do this in my new MacBook Air? Or should I fire up the
>> > old, small Linux laptop?
>>
>> Ah, you have a new MacBook Air.  Great.  Why ask me MacBook Air
>> questions?  I have no specific knowledge of MacBook Air, other than you
>> claim to have a new one.  Fantastic, you know much more about
>> MacBook Air than I do.  Congratulations!
>>
>> > On Tue, Apr 14, 2020, 7:16 AM Elise Scher <elise.scher01 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Ok. I have an idea. Let's set up a Zoom meeting. Or use something
>> >> Zoom-like, if you don't like Zoom. I need some talking me through it at
>> >> first please. I haven't been using any flavor of Linux lately. Just my
>> >> Chromebook and Mac at home and my Windows desktop at
>> >> And my Android phone.
>>
>> There's only one of me.  There's about 276 SF-LUG folks.  Why ask just
>> me?  Makes you wait longer, and mostly wastes my time.  How to use an
>> ssh client to log on to a Linux host isn't something specific to my
>> knowledge that nobody else would know.  It's not even limited to
>> that of SF-LUG folks.  There are probably many millions or more folks
>> that not only know how to do that, but are probably even fluent in
>> English and could explain it.  There are probably hundreds, if not
>> thousands or more resources on The Internet that would explain how.
>> Almost certainly plenty of videos too.  If you really want someone to
>> walk you through it, great, but why ask only and exactly me?  Not the
>> best way to go about it.
>> And if you use Zoom or something like that, as long as you don't
>> show/reveal your password to 'em, for the most part, it's not like it's
>> anything you couldn't share showing to anyone else.
>>
>> >>       I do have a small Linux laptop, a former Chromebook that somebody
>> >> helped me put Ubuntu on I believe.
>>
>> Great, sure, as explained earlier
>> http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2020q2/014659.html
>> lots of ssh clients available for many OS platforms, and most certainly
>> also including Ubuntu - which is a distro of Linux, and Linux generally
>> provides such or has such readily available to easily install.
>>
>> >> On Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 11:54 PM Elise Scher <elise.scher01 at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> I think I know my userid and password.
>>
>> Hopefully you do - that information was communicated earlier.
>> As was also the hostname as it is also found in DNS - and that last bit
>> has also been covered on-list too.
>>
>> >>> On Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 11:52 PM Elise Scher <elise.scher01 at gmail.com>
>> >>> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>> How do I log in? I need more details please.
>>
>> http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2020q2/014659.html
>>
>> >>>> On Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 11:09 PM Michael Paoli <
>> >>>> Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>>> Elise,
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> It's been 3 weeks now ... you've still not gotten as far as
>> >>>>> logging in and changing your password.
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> You should do that as soon as feasible, since also, for your
>> >>>>> convenience, the *temporary* password was emailed to you in
>> >>>>> the clear.  Shouldn't remain the case that password was so
>> >>>>> sent, and it's still not been changed!  Please change it
>> >>>>> as soon as you can.
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> If you fail to change the password by end of Monday, local time
>> >>>>> next week (that would be slightly over 4 weeks!), I may lock the
>> >>>>> account for security (note that for many sites, typical security
>> >>>>> policy, after a user's password is reset, they're forced to change
>> >>>>> it - if they fail to change it within something between 72 hours
>> >>>>> and 10 days, the account is then locked ... you're already a hair
>> >>>>> past 21 days).
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> references/excerpts (redacted):
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> > From: "Michael Paoli" <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>
>> >>>>> > To: "Elise Scher" <elise.scher01 at gmail.com>
>> >>>>> > Subject: Re: login account for Elise: Re: [sf-lug] Volunteering
>> >>>>> > Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2020 08:27:03 -0700
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> >> From: "Elise Scher" <elise.scher01 at gmail.com>
>> >>>>> >> Subject: Re: login account for Elise: Re: [sf-lug] Volunteering
>> >>>>> >> Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2020 22:37:39 -0700
>> >>>>> >
>> >>>>> > Elise,
>> >>>>> >
>> >>>>> > Your account has been created.
>> >>>>> >
>> >>>>> > I earlier provided the hostname - that's the name that can be used via
>> >>>>> > DNS, and will consistently stay with that host.  FYI, the host is
>> >>>>> > dual stack - both IPv4 and IPv6.
>> >>>>> >
>> >>>>> > Login name - I used what you suggested.
>> >>>>> >
>> >>>>> > Temporary password.
>> >>>>> > First of all, never ever ever share or reveal your password to
>> >>>>> > anyone ... not even presumably trustworthy system administrator -
>> >>>>> > have no legitimate need for them to know it and should never ask it of
>> >>>>> > you.  Also, at first login, it should force you to pick a new
>> >>>>> password.
>> >>>>> > Be sure to choose a good strong unique password.  The system is
>> >>>>> > necessarily exposed to The Internet, and allows direct login
>> >>>>> > from The Internet, so poor/weak/compromised password(s) puts
>> >>>>> > everyone and everything on the host at risk.
>> >>>>> > Temporary password:
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> [REDACTED]
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> > Let me know after you've successfully changed your password.
>> >>>>> > Once that's the case, I'll update sudo (sudoers) access for you,
>> >>>>> > so you can actually do some more useful stuff on there (e.g. like
>> >>>>> > edit SF-LUG's web page and web content).
>>
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