In some environments, Ingres uses the ingvalidpw program (see Ingvalidpw Program (Password Validation)) to validate user passwords. Ingvalidpw is used depending on the requirements of the platform where the password is validated. For example, the DBMS Server uses the ingvalidpw program to validate shadow passwords on UNIX or to enforce C2 security in some UNIX environments.

Ingvalidpw is used for authentication against OS users; it is not used when DBMS authentication is enabled.