Open Radar

 
[Update] Thanks very much for your feedback.
After much deliberation, engineering has removed this feature.
We are now closing this bug report.
If you have questions regarding the resolution of this issue, please update your bug report with them.
Please be sure to regularly check new Apple releases for any updates that might affect this issue.
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Summary: I am unable to authenticate as a BSD user defined in /etc/master.pass.

Steps to Reproduce: Use vipw as root to edit the master.pass file and add a user on a new line such as bsduser:*:804:20::0:0:BSD User:/Users/bsduser:/bin:bash
Then give the user a password as root with sudo passwd -i file bsduser
When prompted enter a password twice (I used "password" for the test).
Then id the user to be sure opendirectoryd is reading them correctly.
Try to switch to the new user with su. (su bsduser)
When prompted for the password, enter the previously set password.
Authentication fails.

Expected Results: I should be able to switch to the bsd user.

Actual Results: Authentication fails.  Secure.log reports:
in pam_sm_authenticate(): authentication failed
in pam_sm_authenticate(): OpenDirectory - User record NULL
BAD SU clientadmin to bsduser on /dev/ttys000

Regression:  

Notes: I know in 10.6 there was an option in Directory Utility to enable directoryservice to use master.pass.  That changed an entry in /Library/Preferences/DirectoryService, but with the change to opendirectoryd, that is no longer available.  Also dscl no longer shows the /BSD/Local directory as an option.
 This certainly may be a "works as expected", but I have not been able to find that documented anywhere and quite a few others are unaware of an official changes in this area.