Root password change on a remote server

[Sravan Tailam]

Root password change on a remote server.
========================================

Am on server A, attempting to change the root passwd on server B. Am using the following commands at the shell:

++++++++ commands ++++++++
# remsh remote_host -n passwd << EOF
> newpasswd
> newpasswd
> EOF
Changing password for root
pam_chauthtok: System error

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I need help troubleshoooting the erro : pam_chauthtok: System error.
OR, if you have a better solution to achieve objective, please share it with me.

ps: Server A entry exists on the .rhosts file on Server B for root user.

-Sravan

[Jeff_Traigle]

You can't pass values to passwd like that. Check out the solution in the following post:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=107597

(Searched Forums for "change password remote".)

[Geoff Wild]

Why would you script that?

Better to just do a:

remsh remote_host

Then update password interactively - especially root....


Rgds...Geoff

[Sravan Tailam]

Thanks for your response, Jeff and Geoff.

I have about 60 servers whose root passwd needs to be changed. Thats why I was trying to script it.

I was able to do this on HP-Tru64 servers using rsh.

I was hoping, I could do it using the remsh.

[Geoff Wild]

I figured that was what you wanted to do...

Well, with 60 servers, you might want to look at NIS or a third party system like Unix Control:

http://www.tfstech.com/solutions/unixcontrol/index.htm

That way you have a centralized system for maintaining users/passwords/access, etc.

Rgds...Geoff

[Simon Hargrave]

If you want to set all the passwords to be the same, then you could (probably bad practice but it would work): -

- Change the password on one server.
- Copy the /tcb/files/auth/r/root file from that server to every other server.

This of course assumes you're configured as trusted systems.

It's dirty, but you want it!

[Sravan Tailam]

Geoff,
Thanks. We use NIS serving all non-root users. Root, for some reason was set locally by the prior SA. If root was served by NIS and there is a network problem. Aren't we hosed ??? What are your thoughts on this ?

Simon,
we dont use trusted system. For that matter, we dont use many of the new features, and we are stuck with this architecture for the near future. Thanks for the advice though !!!

I read an article, where the poster implemented the solution using remsh.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=107597

Unfortunately, he did not share the script. sob .. sob ...

Sravam

[Geoff Wild]

Check this post about root/nis:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=365587

That's what's great about TFS Unix Control - if network is down, root can still login...

Rgds...Geoff

[Jeff_Traigle · Accepted solution]

Why would you need the exact script he used? You should be able to basically substitute the telnet command with remsh in the script that was posted in that thread. Eliminate the unnecessary login credentials that won't be needed since you have .rhosts set up. Eliminate the line related to changing password on a trusted system if you aren't using trusted systems. Not difficult to do.

[RAC_1]

There are few options to do that.
1. Use expect
2. Generate the scripted password on host and paste that into the password field on remote server.
3. Use of ssh/rsh with command /usr/sam/lbin/usermod.sam

e.g.

ssh remote_host "/usr/sam/lbin/usermod.sam -p `echo "1234abcdxy"|/usr/bin/makekey` user_name"

This would set the password to 1234abcd for user user_name on remote host. the password has to be of 8 chars. The chars xy are salt chars. If you set ssh to authenticate with public keys, you will not require any interference in this.

Anil

[Sravan Tailam]

Jeff,
I replaced the telnet with remsh and used the same script with little modifications(removing trusted system line). It works great. Thanks for your help.

Anil,
am using .rhosts, so for all my Tru64 servers, am using rsh and it works fine. For HP-UX boxed, I found the solution using remsh proposed by another poster in my earlier mentioned article. Thanks for the suggestion, anyway.

Thanks everyone for helping me out.
============ script ==============
for HOST in `cat /tmp/hosts-HP`
do
( sleep 2
echo "hostname"
echo "passwd"
sleep 2
echo "Newpasswd1"
sleep 2
echo "Newpasswd1"
sleep 2
echo exit
sleep 5 ) | remsh $HOST
done
=================
Sravan

[Sravan Tailam]

I used the above script and works great.