i have a postfix mail server in my office and mailscanner. recently i changed the password of mailscanner's admin login 'mailwatch' and now i m unable to get login in postfixmail scanner. even i changed the password of mailwatch user from mysql database, bt it does not work. please help to get login into mailscanner to chk the mails of all users.

I suspect that the password in SQL has been hashed somehow and you will have trouble re-recreating it. BTW, This is the whole point of securing passwords; to prevent someone from doing what you are trying.

In most Linux applications, the 'magic' is in the configuration files, typically stored in /etc, rather than in the application itself. Maybe you can back up your configuration, remove and purge the package, remove the user of SQL. Then re-install the package which will prompt a re-configure. Afterwards, restore your configuration.

Alternatively, you may be able to just run a package reconfigure and recreate the initial setup and then restore your configuration instead of removing the package. In either case, back up your existing configuration first.

Edit: normally it is against the policies of LQ to help with password cracking. The process that I suggested will require root privilege, which if you have I assume you are the authorized user of the machine. Hence there is no need to 'crack' the password.

thank u sir... bt still i want to knw that if i add a new user in sql then will it work or nt? and i have root privilege of the system and plz tell me if there is any way to crack the passwd. actualy i hav newly joined this company and i was resetting the passwds for security purposes. and i dnt want dat my management will say anything wrong to me. plz help me if passwd cracking is possible. plz. m in trouble.

Thanks and Regards
Manish

I doubt that you will be able to 'crack' the password, but you may be able to reset it. To do so, you would need to change it both in the user for MySQL and in the configuration for the application, which is likely in a folder in your /etc directory. See this link. About half way down, it shows the creation of a SQL user and grants privileges on the user account. This information will also be stored in a configuration file, or possibly in a generated PHP (or include) file for Mailwatch and will need to match in both places. Note, if you change the password in SQL and then look at the password again, it will probably be hashed and won't look like what you entered. This is because the application will take the password, hash it, and then SQL will compare the hashes. This way the actual password doesn't need to be stored in SQL.

Also, it looks like you made an honest mistake on a new job. These things happen and I am sure your new boss knows this. Undoubtedly, you will look far worse if in trying to cover this up, you make more mistakes. Be careful and make back ups.

I agree with Noway2 totally. Own up to a mistake, and get it solved by working with your team.

And you need to spell your words out....that text-speak garbage is against LQ rules.

I am sorry for my words used, actually I am new to this community that's why i made a mistake. Next time it will not happen. And thanks a lot to Mr. Noway2 who gave me such a good response just like a big brother. I really appreciate this. And you are right that I made mistake and I agree to this but I think, if I have to learn something I have to do it by myself. Next time I will be aware of it.

Thanks and Regards
Manish Dhiman