Extract text from Unix password databases (PASSWD)
To convert PASSWD password files to another format, you need Unix or other System software.
To convert other file formats to the "User Database File" file type, you need software like Unix or a similar tool.
The .passwd file (often simply named passwd) is a standard system database used in Unix and Linux environments to store essential user account details. Each text line typically represents one user, storing the username, user ID (UID), group ID (GID), home directory, and default shell, all separated by colons. Occasionally, the .passwd extension is also used for binary database files powered by Oracle Berkeley DB to manage credentials in specific web server applications, or as an ELF password management command executable.
While system administrators can open text-based .passwd files in editors like Vim, the plain-text colon-separated format is highly inefficient for human readability and corporate auditing. Security teams and HR departments cannot natively sort, filter, or analyze raw .passwd files in standard spreadsheet software. Furthermore, binary database variants of this file require specialized database client installations just to read the basic contents.
To resolve these formatting issues, convert .passwd to CSV. This parses the colon separators into structured columns, allowing you to easily audit user accounts in Microsoft Excel. For system migrations or API integrations, convert it to JSON or XML. Drag and drop your file here to analyze and convert it securely right in your browser without installing command-line tools.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PASSWD file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted BTD, TBL, LICENSE and DESC files.
If you want to convert PASSWD file to , you can use Unix or similar software from the "User Account Database Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to PASSWD, try Unix or another comparable tool in the "User Account Database Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our PASSWD converter.