On Linux, in additon to root, which users can read /etc/passwd, the password file? Pick the best answer.

On Linux, in addition to root, which users can read /etc/passwd? Pick the best answer.

• Each user, but only their own entry in the file.
• All users in group "shadow".
• All users in group "wheel".
• All users.

EXPLANATION

/etc/passwd file stores essential information, which required during login. In other words, it stores user account information. The /etc/passwd is a plain text file. It contains a list of the system’s accounts, giving for each account some useful information like user ID, group ID, home directory, shell, and more. The /etc/passwd file should have general read permission as many command utilities use it to map user IDs to user names. However, write access to the /etc/passwd must only limit for the superuser/root account.

The /etc/passwd File. /etc/passwd is a text file that contains the attributes of (i.e., basic information about) each user or account on a computer running Linux or another Unix-like operating system. Each line in /etc/passwd represents a single user.

 Quoting:  https://linux.die.net/man/5/passwd

"Name
passwd - password file
Description
The /etc/passwd file is a text file that describes user login accounts for the system.  It should have read permission allowed for all users (many utilities, like ls(1) use it to map user IDs to usernames), but write access only for the superuser."
The /etc/shadow file, which stores hashed passwords, can only be read by owner root, (and maybe members of group shadow, in some distributions):

$ ls  -lL /etc/shadow
-rw-r----- 1 root shadow 1266 Dec 19  2017 /etc/shadow

The "passwd" utility allows non-privileged users to run the utility with an effective ID of the file's owner, in this case root.  This means that non-privileged users can read and update the /etc/shadow file, via the "passwd" binary, when they change passwords.

ls -l $(which passwd)
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root shadow 51200 Sep 27  2013 /usr/bin/passwd
   ^
## ^ 
## "s" is the setuid bit. 

The setuid bit allows non-privileged users to run /usr/bin/passwd as the file's owner, root.
Note that in modern versions of Linux and Unix, the password file, /etc/passwd, does not contain passwords.  Rather, the second field of each line will have an "x", indicating that a hashed password is stored in /etc/shadow

SOURCE

https://linux.die.net/man/5/passwd