forgot root password

[Cheung_2]

If forgot root password, how to reset it ? thx.

[Ashwani Kashyap]

Boot your system in single user mode and change the password .

[Rajeev Shukla]

I am affraid but thats the only way.
Reboot the server and terminate at the boot process.
at PDC type bo
Interact with IPL (say Yes)
at ISL type
hpux -is
this takes you to single user mode. Change the password and bring to multiusermode

Cheers
Rajeev

[Animesh Chakraborty]

If it is trusted system then it may not be so easy.
The other day I was trying to change the root password after booting in single user more but it was asking old password :(
And also there is an option in system security policy -->General user account policy --> [ ] Require Login Upon Boot to Single-User State
If it is enable then it is not your day.

[sycncs]

Hi Cheung

You can do a passwd -d root.
This allows you to login as root without password prompt. Once you are logged in, change your passwd immediately.

Hope this helps.

[Ian Kidd_1]

The only way to reset root's password on a conventional system is to boot to single-user mode. Hopefully, you have another session open somewhere logged in as root. Then you can just issue the passwd command.

I would suggest you install sudo or sfu onto your system then give your ID full rights. That way you'd be able to reset root's password without the need to reboot. you can't perform this action now (since you need to be root to install), but might save your bacon at a future date. It saved me a few times.

In regard to Animesh's comment about "Require Login Upon Boot to Single-User State", I use:
/usr/lbin/getprdef -r -m bootpw
The output of that command will be NO or YES. I have this in a script called in cron that will notify me if that check box is marked.

[Animesh Chakraborty]

Thanks Ian.
/usr/lbin/getprdef -r -m bootpw noted in my memory.

[Ricky B. Nino]

Hi Ian Kidd,

Please elaborate more on the command...

/usr/lbin/getprdef -r -m bootpw .

Does this enable/disable the password requirement at the single user mode?

or

It will just display if the password requirement is enable/disable at for single user mode?

[Michael Tully]

The 'getprpw' command only displays information in the TCB database. If you have an 11i system you can view the man page on this. The 'modprpw' command can be used to change it. If you have an 11i system there are man pages on these.

[Michael Tully]

The 'getprpw' command only displays information in the TCB database. If you have an 11i system you can view the man page on this. The 'modprpw' command can be used to change this selection.

[Rajeev Shukla]

Hi Animesh,
If its a trusted machine, still its not difficult. Instead of using just passwd (which is /usr/bin/passwd) which asks for old password use /sbin/passwd it wont ask you for old password and then you can change the password easly.

Cheers
rajeev

[Jochen Heuer]

Hi Cheung,

do provide some points to answers that solved your problem please ...

Jochen

[Jose Mosquera]

Hi,

I'll try with the anti-tech method, if your system haven't strict security polices, pls try get via ftp with an user the /etc/passwd file to your PC then use any password cracker available on Internet to decrypt root password. This looks crazy but in some cases works!

Rgds.