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10.5: Reset a user's password in single user mode
Authored by: allanmarcus on Apr 23, '08 04:14:55PM

Once you mount the file system, can't you just use passwd <username> ?

Of course neither method will change the user's login keychain password.




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10.5: Reset a user's password in single user mode
Authored by: timhaigh on Apr 24, '08 02:40:20AM

Yep, There is no backdoor into the keychain.



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10.5: Reset a user's password in single user mode
Authored by: pbn on Apr 24, '08 03:59:51AM
Hi there, I don't think passwd would change the password. The passwd command will change the password in /etc/passwd. But Mac OS X doesn't rely on /etc/passwd for passwords, it relies on Directory Service and you have to use the dscl commande to change things in Directory Service.

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10.5: Reset a user's password in single user mode
Authored by: kholburn on Apr 26, '08 09:35:42AM

passwd will change the user's password in whatever way the system has been set up. Unix systems don't all use /etc/passwd, actually most standalone systems use /etc/shadow not /etc/passwd. Most networked systems use ldap or kerberos or even opendirectory. If passwd has been tailored correctly to the mac it should change the user's password correctly. Maybe not the keychain access password though.

N.B. I haven't tried using passwd in 10.5.



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Confirmed: passwd works in 10.5
Authored by: ilikeimac on Jun 17, '09 07:44:15PM

I did just the following after rebooting to single user mode in 10.5 and it worked:

/sbin/mount -uw /
passwd username
After the next reboot my machine didn't automatically login, even though it is configured to do so, and it prompted me for the keychain password in order join my wireless network, but it did honor the new password and it sounds like you can subsequently reset the password in System Preferences to change the keychain password.

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10.5: Reset a user's password in single user mode
Authored by: bolah1313 on Apr 25, '08 07:51:35AM

You don't have to worry about the Keychain password. Once you change the user's password and can log into the computer all need to do is simply go into the Accounts preference pane and change the password there to either the new password or something different if you so choose. That action will then automatically change the Keychain Password. I've done this several hundred times on Macs from 10.0 through 10.4.11 I haven't yet had to change a password on a Leopard box but I'm sure it will work just the same.

---
Tino XIII



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10.5: Reset a user's password in single user mode
Authored by: Mr. H on Jan 06, '11 07:33:30AM

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work with 10.5. I just did this and now can't access the login keychain (OS 10.5.6). Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way around this.

Edited on Jan 06, '11 08:25:59AM by Mr. H



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