how to bypass "Old password" prompt for root

[Tony Leahy]

Hi,
ok did something really stupid for a Tuesday morning .. reset the root password but it is not the password I thought I had

I have a few telnet sessions to the server but the problem is it asks for the old password when I try to change it

is there any way out of this without having go to single-user mode ?

[Sridhar Bhaskarla · Accepted solution]

Tony,

If you have a root session open, you can almost do anything.

For non-trusted system: Edit /etc/passwd file and remove the 'encrypted' password string (second field).

For trusted system: The encrypted string will be * in /etc/passwd file. Edit /tcb/files/auth/r/root file and take out the encrypted string.

Run 'passwd' and it shouldn't prompt you for the old password now.

-Sri

[Tony Leahy]

Hi,
thanks Sri - perfect answer

It is a trusted system and now it has a correct
password :)

Tony.