I have an FTP server that is running Fedora Core release 6 (Zod)

the problem is I need to create new users and I have root access saved in WinSCP, so I can run useradd or adduser via the fake terminal, but every time I try to use passwd <username> it crashes on me and won't allow me to change or add a password.

my questions are this:

--Is there a place the adduser script stores the default passwords? or what is the default?
--Is there another way I can set passwords for new users?

I don't want to change the root pass because EVERYONE has root access and it's saved in WinSCP (I'm sure you see the problem here...)

I want to create User accounts for each user instead of giving them all blatant root access.

the goal here is to gradually migrate everyone over to their new account and then change the root p/w.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.