[Novalug] Unable to change roots password

David A. Cafaro dac@cafaro.net
Fri Jun 20 11:19:24 EDT 2008


That should have read, not certain what the issue is...

Why can't spell check read my mind???

On Jun 20, 2008, at 11:15 AM, David A. Cafaro wrote:
>
> Anyways, just trying to come at this at all angles as I have certain
> idea what the issue is.
>
> Cheers,
> David
>
> On Jun 20, 2008, at 11:01 AM, Shawn Wells wrote:
>
>> Oh sure, just blame SELinux.. ;)  If that were the case an audit
>> event would be recorded in /var/log/messages or /var/log/audit/
>> audit.log if you have that setup.
>>
>> Generally though "passwd: Authentication failure" means you've mis-
>> typed the passwords between the two prompts.
>>
>> Your permissions on /etc/shadow are probably fine, else you'd get a
>> message about "passwd: You may not view or modify password
>> information for root."  Do you still get the error in single user
>> mode?
>>
>> Try a "strace -fo test_passwd_results passwd" then include the
>> context of that file... would tell us more.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> David A. Cafaro wrote:
>>> When you su to root, did you "su" or "su -".  Also if this is
>>> CentOS  box, version 4 or 5, is SELinux enabled and enforcing?
>>>
>>> If so try doing "setenfroce Permissive" and then try changing
>>> passwords.
>>>
>>> Just some ideas.
>>>
>>> -David
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jun 20, 2008, at 9:04 AM, Nick Danger wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Answering various questions in one email, Thanks everyone for the
>>>> help
>>>> so far;
>>>>
>>>> Nothing in logs. messages, secure, nothing in dmsg. No errors/
>>>> hints in
>>>> any log I can find.
>>>> No centralized ldap auth server, its a stand alone box. I can run
>>>> passwd
>>>> on anyone as themselves, or root can change other users passwords
>>>> just
>>>> not its own
>>>> I checked pam.d and they look the same across all servers. We
>>>> investigated centralized auth at one point but I don't think it
>>>> ever  got
>>>> beyond the talking stages.
>>>>
>>>> At last resort I am tempted to just cut the encrypted new PW from
>>>> another server and paste it into /etc/shadow. It just doesnt seem
>>>> right
>>>> that it wont work correctly.....
>>>>
>>>> Nick
>>>>
>>>> Nick Danger wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I can connect to this server, and I can su to root (CentOS box)  
>>>>> but
>>>>> oddly I cannot change roots password.
>>>>>
>>>>> [root@host ~]# passwd
>>>>> Changing password for user root.
>>>>> New UNIX password:
>>>>> Retype new UNIX password:
>>>>> passwd: Authentication failure
>>>>> [root@host ~]#
>>>>>
>>>>> Anyone ever seen that before?
>>>>>
>>>>> Nick
>>>>>
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>>>
>>> David A. Cafaro <dac@cafaro.net>
>>> Cafaro's Ramblings:  www.cafaro.net
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>
> David A. Cafaro <dac@cafaro.net>
> Cafaro's Ramblings:  www.cafaro.net
>
>
>
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David A. Cafaro <dac@cafaro.net>
Cafaro's Ramblings:  www.cafaro.net






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