Added a new user on Ubuntu, set password not working

groupusers

I created a new user:

$ sudo useradd -m Ari -p pass123

But when I went to login it said the password was incorrect, I know it's correct because I saved the command line log as a text file.

Other than that, at the same time I also created a group:

$ sudo groupadd testgroup1

and added the new account to it:

$ sudo usermod -a -G testgroup1 Ari

Why can't a log in?

Best Answer

The -p option is looking for an encrypted password:

-p, --password PASSWORD

The encrypted password, as returned by crypt(3). The default is to disable the password.

Note: This option is not recommended because the password (or encrypted password) will
be visible by users listing the processes.

You should make sure the password respects the system's password policy.

You should use the following to change the password:

sudo passwd Ari

In order to use the -p option you must first encrypt the password. You can use some of the methods mentioned here such as:

$ mkpasswd
Password:
1puqSPGTnyi5o
$ sudo useradd -m Ari -p 1puqSPGTnyi5o

Note the mkpasswd utility is included in the whois package which can be obtained through apt

Related Solutions

Ssh – Force pubkey-auth user to set password at first login

You could

Make sure nullok or nullok_secure is not in use in arguments of pam_unix for auth in the pam configuration for any service.
passwd -d foo
chage -d0 foo

That seems to do the trick here (debian wheezy).

User created without a password behaves as if he had one

A user is created by default as a locked account. The field that should contain the password hash in /etc/shadow will contain !!. When an account is locked, that account is available to root only (root can su but logins aren't allowed). If you 'unlock' the account which simply removes the !! you will be allowed to change the password.

[root@test ~]# su - test
[test@test ~]$ passwd
Changing password for user test.
Changing password for test.
(current) UNIX password:
[test@test ~]$ exit
logout
[root@test ~]# passwd -u test
Unlocking password for user test.
passwd: Warning: unlocked password would be empty.
passwd: Unsafe operation (use -f to force)
[root@test ~]# passwd -u test -f
Unlocking password for user test.
passwd: Success
[root@test ~]# su - test
[test@test ~]$ passwd
Changing password for user test.
New password:

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ssh – Force pubkey-auth user to set password at first login

User created without a password behaves as if he had one

Related Question