I am quite new to linux and cybersecurity, so I would appreciate any help you can give. 

My question is why is it necessary to store passwords hashed? From what I've learned, passwords are stored on the hard drive/SSD in /etc/shadow. However, if a malicious agent was able to get access to this file, doesn't that mean they can potentially access all the user's other files? If so, what is the point of cracking the password if you already have access to everything? Just curious!