Linux – How to recover the password for a particular user account on the linux pc

linuxlinux-kernelpasswordssudo

I have a linux pc on which several users are configured to login. for the same PC i have the root access (username and password). I have lost one of the user accounts password. How to get back the password for that particular user account.
I have tried the following being a root user

passwd <login name>
Enter new password
confirm new password

But its not fruitful
could you please suggest some ways of recoverng the password.

Also,I got to know that passwords are stored in /etc/shadow file in encrypted form. Does anyone know how to get the decrypted form of encrypted password.

Best Answer

The whole point of storing hashed passwords in /etc/shadow is so that it is not possible to retrieve the plaintext password, so there is no way to determine what the current password is. Your only option is to reset the password using passwd <username> as root.

Related Solutions

Linux Security – Understanding ‘Panic Password’

There is now a GPLv2-licensed PAM-module, that does exactly, what you wish. It allows the same account to login to the same Unix box with different passwords depending on what the user wishes done upon login. Interestingly enough, the author mentions the same book in his description of the module.

You write your own scripts, which will be associated with the different passwords -- from automatically attaching an encrypted filesystem upon entering a "safe" one to automatically wiping the same upon entering the "panic" one. And anything in between.

I wish, something similar were available from e-mail providers and various social media services -- to hide certain mailboxes, images, etc. when the user logs in with a special password. Maybe, we'll come to that too some day...

VirtualBox Ubuntu – How to Set Password for Root

Ubuntu uses sudo by default. If you preface your command with "sudo" it prompts for your user password and then runs it as root. To get a root session use:

sudo -i

To enable the root account, open a terminal and run the following to set a root password:

sudo passwd root

For more information see:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux Security – Understanding ‘Panic Password’

VirtualBox Ubuntu – How to Set Password for Root

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