A system administrator needs to audit user accounts and enforce a new password expiration policy. Which file must be consulted to find information about when a user's password was last changed and what the current aging policies are?
/etc/shadow
/etc/passwd
/etc/skel
/etc/group
The correct answer is /etc/shadow. This file stores secure user account information, including the user's encrypted password and password aging details. The third field in each entry indicates the date of the last password change, while subsequent fields define the minimum and maximum password age, warning period, and inactivity period. The /etc/passwd file contains basic user information like username, UID, and GID, but not password aging data. The /etc/group file defines group memberships. The /etc/skel directory is a template used to populate new user home directories and does not contain information about existing users.
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