[Koha] Importing encrypted patron passwords

[Mark Alexander]

I'm in the process of upgrading a library's Debian 7/Koha 3.16 setup.
This installation is so old that an in-place upgrade can't be done.
My plan is to first create a test VM with Debian 10 and the latest
stable koha-common.  Then after manually setting up various admin
things (library, item types, ccode, loc, patron types), I'll import
the catalog and the patron list.  Finally, I'll move the resulting
database to the real (live) server.

The snag here is the patron passwords.  I'll use a report from the SQL
library to export the patron list from the old installation, but the
passwords will be encrypted.  My understanding is that when importing
the patron list, the passwords must be unencrypted.  So I'll need to
remove the password column from the CSV file, and as a result,
every patron password will have to be reset manually.

Is there any workaround for this?  I would just like to move the
encrypted passwords from the old installation to the new one.  I am
comfortable doing some hand-crafted SQL updates to accomplish this.
But before I make the attempt, is there any reason why this wouldn't
work or why it's a bad idea?

-- 
Single-handedly, I have fought my way
into this hopeless mess. --Ashleigh Brilliant