If you use the "chpasswd" utility that comes with shadow-utils it does not generate md5 passwords if the system is using md5 passwords, which really sucks considering everyone uses the default md5 passwords now. There is a good chance that all system password utilities do not grok md5 passwords. Create a list of passwords like this: mail:newpassword uucp:potato news:microsoftsucks Then run: chpasswd < userlist It adds the passwords to the system alright, but not md5'd. Sounds like the system passwd utils should have a feature audit. Reason I stumbled on this was I was trying to find a solution for someone wanting to add numerous users to the system using shadow+md5 and I've so far been unable to.. ;o( Kindof important for ISP's, univ's, etc.. IMHO.
chpasswd still 3 years later, generates non-md5 passwords when the system is set to use MD5 by default... (tested on Fedora Core 1) Setting status to "WONTFIX", as it's been 3 years since I submitted this issue, and the problem still remains. It seems low priority enough that it is unlikely we will implement this.