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Use a master password on 'managed' machines
Authored by: edoriv on Sep 01, '04 12:04:45PM

or a rather simple solution would be to use the terminal...
open terminal type the following

quick explination (read further for deatils if you need them)

sudo passwd [insert short user name of account to change password for]





for those that need a little more info read on

sudo passwd [insert short user name to change here]
(RETURN KEY)
you will be prompted for an admin password (one that is the main user with admin privs) you will blind type your password (won't see it on the command line)

you will next see the following

Changing password for shared.
New password:
Retype new password:

after you retype the new password the password will have been reset to the new password.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Even for non admin users?...
Authored by: nicola on Sep 01, '04 01:35:00PM

That is: what if the current user is not a 'sudoer'?
AFAIK, to do what you say you must be currently logged in as an administrator, and that's just what the hint is about: avoid that...

Or am I missing the point? Sorry if so.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Even for non admin users?...
Authored by: edoriv on Sep 02, '04 07:22:38PM

you can always assume the role of any other user

su [admin user name] (RETURN KEY)
it will ask for that users password

now you are running as an admin in the terminal now you can do anything you need...

no matter what even with the hint given you MUST know some MASTER password... the master password setting still won't work unless you know the master password... wouldn't knowing that master password be equivalent of having admin-ship??? I wouldn't give the system master password to anyone I wouldn't give an admin account to.

also the hint was providing a way to change passwords without having to log out and in to an admin account... I gave the same thing only in a terminal version...

one more advantage to my way is you don't have to be local to the machine to do the password reset... simply run a telnet or ssh session and you could do it from any place as long as you have network access.

cheers



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