Error reseting root password on trusted system

[Joseph Bague]

Hi all,

I forgot my root password on our HP-UX 11i trusted system. Fortunately i have a backup account with root privileges. When I try to reset the root password in sam but i encounter this error.

An invalid command syntax was used to invoke the command "usr/lbin/modprpw". Failed to update protected password for user "".

What should I do?

Many thanks in advance.
Joseph :)

[twang · Accepted solution]

Does it work for non-root accounts?
Try to do an authck -a and see whether it can fix this problem.
And do you try to do it in single user mode,
1. untrust the system (tsconvert -r)
2. reset the root password
3. then re-trust the system (tsconvert)

[Elmar P. Kolkman]

Or try to change the root passwd from the command line.

If nothing else helps, you could even try to replace the encrypted password of root in the /tcb directory structure with the encrypted password entry of a user you know the password of, for instance your current 'root' user.

[Joseph Bague]

Hi elmar,

I tried to change it on command prompt(passwd) but still prompting for old password.(which i forgot). Is there any command that i can use?

[Darren Prior]

hi Joseph,

It's worth searching through the samlog to find more detail on the error. It might be related to you having a user with something odd in their tcb entry.

Otherwise Elmar's suggestion of putting a known encrypted password into the tcb entry for the user is a workaround.

regards,

Darren.