Location of user passwords in FreeBSD

Question

I am in a system administration course in college in which I have my own FreeBSD server set up, so I obviously can login as the root user. I need to figure out where the actual passwords for users are stored, where they are not encrypted, if they are even stored in such a way. I know that all user account information as well as process information is stored in the /etc/passwd directory but there are only "*" in the password fields. I just need to know the directory and file where they are stored.

Answer 1

/etc/master.passwd is where the encrypted passwords are stored. The unencrypted passwords are not stored anywhere, as that would be a major security risk.

Answer 2

It's the master.passwd file: http://www.freebsdwiki.net/index.php/Etc/master.passwd

But you should use vipw or chpass to edit the file.