vnc4passwd1

Usage

Overview

vncpasswd allows you to set the password used to access VNC desktops. It stores an obfuscated version of the password in the given file (default $HOME/.vnc/passwd). The vncserver script runs vncpasswd the first time you start a VNC desktop, and invokes Xvnc with the appropriate -rfbauth option. vncviewer can also be given a password file to use via the -passwd option.

The password must be at least six characters long, and only the first eight characters are significant. Note that the stored password is not encrypted securely - anyone who has access to this file can trivially find out the plaintext password, so vncpasswd always sets appropriate permissions (read and write only by the owner). However, when accessing a VNC desktop a challenge-response mechanism is used over the wire making it hard for anyone to crack the password simply by snooping on the network.

Files

$HOME/.vnc/passwd

Default location of the VNC password file.