root cannot change root passwd

kamariz · 02-01-2008, 04:04 AM

hi all,

i'm using fedora 8. i got a problem where root cannot change root's password.

Quote:

[root@localhost ~]# passwd
Changing password for user root.
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
[root@localhost ~]#

i thought this problem cause by SELinux, but i SELinux is already disabled.

also in /etc, there is a file ".pwd.lock". what is that?

i try to disable root's password by editing /etc/shadow, but i just cannot chmod the shadow file.

Quote:

[root@localhost etc]# ll shadow
-r-------- 1 root root 1253 2008-02-01 07:47 shadow
[root@localhost etc]# chmod 755 shadow
chmod: changing permissions of `shadow': Operation not permitted
[root@localhost etc]#

Hope you guys can help me regarding this matter. Thanks in advanced.

duryodhan · 02-01-2008, 04:27 AM

When you bootup into linux, at the bootprompt in grub/lilo add the param .. single ..this will boot into single user mode and there try and change the password.

(if you didn't understand how to boot into single user mode ... google for it )

kamariz · 02-01-2008, 04:39 AM

duryodhan,

thanks for replying.

i had try to change root's passwd in single user mode, but still got the same error.

"passwd: Authentication token manipulation error"

any other solution?

kamariz · 02-01-2008, 05:30 AM

hi guy :-)

problem solved..

Quote:

[root@localhost ~]# /usr/sbin/useradd aa
useradd: unable to open password file
[root@localhost ~]# chattr -i /etc/passwd
[root@localhost ~]# /usr/sbin/useradd aa
useradd: cannot open shadow password file
[root@localhost ~]# lsattr /etc/passwd
-------------- /etc/passwd
[root@localhost ~]# lsattr /etc/shadow
----i--------- /etc/shadow
[root@localhost ~]# chattr -i /etc/shadow
[root@localhost ~]# passwd
Changing password for user root.
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
[root@localhost ~]

Thanks.

waelaltaqi · 02-01-2008, 05:31 AM

please retry and post the output from /var/log/secure

are you running local authencitation? i mean are you running any network authentication services like NIS or LDAP?

check permissions

Code:

user@Linux:~$ ls -l /etc/passwd /etc/shadow
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   1442 2007-11-20 20:51 /etc/passwd
-rw-r----- 1 root shadow  909 2007-11-20 20:51 /etc/shadow

kamariz · 02-01-2008, 06:28 AM

waelaltaqi,
thanks for replying.
problem solved already. the problem because of the attribute of the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow that set to not to modified (chattr +i).

thanks.

pablov2 · 01-18-2012, 06:49 AM

I have tried with this solution but i cant change de +i mode

Code:

root@server3:/etc# /usr/bin/chattr -i passwd
root@server3:/etc# lsattr passwd
----i-------------- passwd