TOPS-10: Users

The REACT program is used to manage users on TOPS-10. Although you can start this program as a regular user, it will not have much effect as it cannot read the accounting files in SYS:. So first, login as the operator, which has a user ID of 1,2 and password failsa, and then start REACT.

.login 1,2
JOB 11 KA603 TTY1
Password: 
[LGNJSP Other jobs same PPN]
1018	22-Feb-79	Thu

.r react

FOR HELP TYPE "H<CAR RET>"

*

Type r to read in the main accounting file SYS:ACCT.SYS and t to display it on the terminal. For the second command, it will ask you if you want to list codes (ie passwords) as well.

*r
[8 OUT OF 500 ENTRIES ARE USED]

*t
LIST CODES?y
...
100	100	DEMONSTRATIO	000000000000	DEMO1 	777777777777
	511,,511 2,,5      	017500001763		      
	8 SEP 768	0	511

There's no ready source of documentation for these fields, but you can work out what some of them are by context, such as the account name and password.

To view the other accounting file SYS:AUXACC.SYS type a. REACT will read this file into its buffer and you can again display it with t.

*a
[5 OUT OF 500 ENTRIES ARE USED]

*t

...

100	100	DSKB  	0	100000	100000	0

This indicates what disk structures the user is allowed to access.

Type e to exit REACT.

Often you will want to set up a new user ID beyond the 100,100 account so you can arrange your work or just to have a personalised account. To prepare for this, first choose an octal project and programmer ID pair. For regular users these numbers should be larger than 10. For this example let's choose 200,200. Also select a login name (here rupert) and a password (here secret). Passwords can be 1-6 characters long and are case-insensitive.

The easiest way to do this is copy an existing user and edit it.

Logged in as user 1,2 again, start REACT and load the main accounting file with r. Type i 200,200=100,100 to copy the user from 100,100 and then c 200,200 to change the name and code fields. Finally, write the file with w.

*i 200,200=100,100

*c 200,200
CHANGE: name
ARGS: rupert
CHANGE: code
ARGS: secret
DEMO1  WAS THE OLD CODE FOR THAT NUMBER
CHANGE: 

*w

Next, change the auxiliary accounting file to give access to disk structures. Load it in with a, insert a copy with i, save the file and exit.

*a
[5 OUT OF 500 ENTRIES ARE USED]

*i 200,200=100,100

*w

*e

EXIT

One last task needs to be done - create a user file directory for the new login. Still as 1,2, use the credir command.

.r credir

Create directory: [200,200]
  Created DSKB0:[200,200].UFD/PROTECTION:775
Create directory: ^C

The login is now ready for use.

Using REACT you can change the password for any user with the C command, choosing the code option as shown above.

It should also be possible for a user to change their own password. The help file for LOGIN indicates this is done by giving the /PASSWORD switch at login time, ie

.login 200,200/password

However, the version we have does not seem to support this.

With multiple logins it can be easy to lose track as to what you are currently logged in as. The PJOB command will help here.

.pjob
Job 11   User RUPERT   [200,200]   TTY1

Certain user IDs have a predefined function. There is often also a logical device name associated with these, so for a directory of system help files you can do either dir [2,5] or dir HLP:.

The full set of defined users - including those empty or not present on the disk files we are using - can be found in the Operating Systems Command Manual Appendix A.

As you can see from the above, security is fairly rudimentary on this version of TOPS-10. Passwords can be as short as one character, are stored in plain text and being case-insensitive their strength is not great.

At login time, if you enter an invalid user id or an invalid password for an existing user id you do get the same message.

?LGNIET INVALID ENTRY - Try again

so it is not possible to guess user IDs this way. However, some minitor commands such as SYSTAT are available before you login, so you can get a list of currently logged in users that way. It is possible to keep trying different passwords - there is no lock out after a number of attempts - but the system introduces a small delay after each attempt which at least slows this down.

For TOPS-10 6.03 there is no printed documentation for REACT available that I can find. There is a short help file available via H while running REACT, or via HELP REACT from the command line.

Bitsavers has the Monitor Installation Guide with a description of REACT for TOPS-10 version 7, but this is quite different from the version we have in 6.03.

The Operating Systems Command Manual documents the LOGIN~ command, but note this differs slightly from what the online help file for LOGIN.

I welcome any questions or comments, and also especially any corrections if I have got something wrong. Please email me at rupert@timereshared.com and I will add it here and update the main text.