recovering root's pasword 1

[ratbs75]

The servers here at Tek-tips do not allow any search at the mooment, and me request is quiet urgent. I'll reboot an HP-server (UX-10.20, trusted system) and enter the single user mode... Does the command "passwd root" work without asking me any old password or so? We need to reset the root's password.....

mtia

 

[bi]

Check the FAQ section of the forum. Mike Lacey wrote something on recovering root's password.

 

[2ITLTD]

Well, my experince is that it asks you for the old password first. If you don't know it you still won't be able to change the password. Has any one got any other ideas on a way of doing this? I have the same problem of wanting to change the password but dont know the old one.

 

[ratbs75]

personnaly I restarted in SU mode, and had no problems... i removed in the /etc/passwd file the string which holds the asasword...(I'm sure it's the solution to your problem) then the old one is not asked anymore .....

The other unexpected problem I had BEFORE once in su (single-user) mode, was the I couldn't launch vi, neither ll or any opther commands. The tricky thing was that I had to mount manually the /usr volume, and the /var volume... (hell was that a damn day)......

hope it helped...

 

[ratbs75]

correction: personnaly I restarted in SU mode, and had no problems... i removed in the /etc/passwd file the string which holds the password...(I'm sure it's the solution to your problem) then the old one is not asked anymore .....

 

[gerudman]

/etc/passwd would not help here, since your system is configured as a trusted system. Therefor root's passwd info is at /tcb/files/auth/r/root and a password history will be kept at /tcb/files/auth/system/pwhist/pwhist_2 (which could only be seen by root by default)

If you have any other user in the sys group you can login and change root's password in the above mentioned file. Otherwise, if your machine is not configured to prompt for password in single user mode (luckily not the default when converting to trusted) you whould be able to change it. I'm not to sure if it will prompt for the old passwd, but will test on our dev server to confirm. (My gut feel says you'll need the old password!)

 

[kb134]

try running

/usr/lbin/modprpw -w "" root

this should null the password and when you do passwd root it should not ask you for the password

Hope this helps