Using John the ripper without passwd file

Question

I trying to use John the ripper to crack hashes but I only have access to the shadow file and not the passwd file. I was wondering if there was way to crack the hashes with only the shadow file.

Also I have been given permission to crack these passwords.

Answer 1

Yes. The shadow file - or at least the first two fields (username:hash) - are what John the Ripper is expecting.