Password trouble

[Beartooth]

	I had set my wife an account on one of my computers recently, a 
Thinkpad E-series using MATE User Manager under F31. I suppose I may have 
failed to set her password, though I doubt that intensely.

	 This is a machine that never leaves my desk, despite being a 
laptop. 

	 I typed in her usual password for logging in; I got this:

su - tslg 
You are required to change your password immediately 
(administrator  enforced)
New password: 
BAD PASSWORD: The password fails the dictionary check - it is based on a 
dictionary word
su: Authentication token manipulation error

	Just for the record, it consists of first letters of a line of 
poetry, and does not resemble any word in any of the several languages I 
know. (The app is probably just complaining of the length.) Nor had I 
enforced any such requirement, nor would I.

	useradd -h as root got me nothing that seemed to enable even root 
to edit a user's data. (I tried -p and -u.) Can I do it?? 
-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is
	Suppose I try the obvious: delete and re-add her. (She has not yet 
touched this particular machine, so the account is still empty.) Will she 
or I then be able to set the password she chooses? 

	I don't mind an OS warning me of hazards I can judge better than 
it can; but  I do take it amiss to be forbidden something trivial.
-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is

[Joe Zeff]

On 02/24/2020 11:23 AM, Beartooth wrote:
>  	useradd -h as root got me nothing that seemed to enable even root
>  to edit a user's data. (I tried -p and -u.) Can I do it?? 
Try this: first, use su - to become root.  Then, as root:

passwd $USERNAME

This will (or at least should) allow you to change the user's password 
without needing to know the old one.

[Beartooth]

On Mon, 24 Feb 2020 11:40:01 -0700, Joe Zeff wrote:

>  On 02/24/2020 11:23 AM, Beartooth wrote:
> > 	useradd -h as root got me nothing that seemed to enable even root
> > to edit a user's data. (I tried -p and -u.) Can I do it??
>  
>  Try this: first, use su - to become root.  Then, as root:
>  
>  passwd $USERNAME
>  
>  This will (or at least should) allow you to change the user's password
>  without needing to know the old one. 
	Well, I tried it:

# passwd $xxxx
Changing password for user root.
New password: 

	IOW, when I actually gave it one, it changed *root's* password, 
and I had to change that back. That's worse.
-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is.

[Tim Evans]

On 2/24/20 2:40 PM, Beartooth wrote:

>  	Well, I tried it:
>  
>  # passwd $xxxx
>  Changing password for user root. 
Did you enter the literal "$"? That would've indicated an empty 
variable, so would have been the same as entering "passwd blank".  Which 
would have indicated you wanted to change root's password.



-- 
Tim Evans			|5 Chestnut Court
443-394-3864			|Owings Mills, MD 21117

[Beartooth]

On Mon, 24 Feb 2020 14:49:25 -0500, Tim Evans wrote:

>  On 2/24/20 2:40 PM, Beartooth wrote:
>  
> > 	Well, I tried it:
> > 
> > # passwd $xxxx Changing password for user root.
>  
>  Did you enter the literal "$"? That would've indicated an empty
>  variable, so would have been the same as entering "passwd blank".  Which
>  would have indicated you wanted to change root's password. 
	Yes. I took that as meaning I should. :-(  (My .sig, alas!, means 
what it says.)

	But you nailed it:

# passwd xxx
Changing password for user xxx.
New password: 
BAD PASSWORD: The password fails the dictionary check - it is based on a 
dictionary word
Retype new password: 

	[at this point I gave it her password anyway.]

passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

	Then I checked:
$ su - xxx
Password: 
[xxx@localhost ~]$ 

	HOORAY! Many, many thanks! Now I can spare her a flight of stairs 
just for a quick email check. 
-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is.

[Joe Zeff]

On 02/24/2020 01:06 PM, Beartooth wrote:
>  On Mon, 24 Feb 2020 14:49:25 -0500, Tim Evans wrote:
>  
> > On 2/24/20 2:40 PM, Beartooth wrote:
> >
> >> 	Well, I tried it:
> >>
> >> # passwd $xxxx Changing password for user root.
> > Did you enter the literal "$"? That would've indicated an empty
> > variable, so would have been the same as entering "passwd blank".  Which
> > would have indicated you wanted to change root's password.
>  	Yes. I took that as meaning I should. :-(  (My .sig, alas!, means
>  what it says.) 
FYI, when you want to use the value of a variable, such as PATH, you use 
$PATH, such as in using echo $PATH to find out just what your current 
PATH is.  I used $USERNAME to show that I wanted you to use the username 
and not just USERNAME in that command.  This usage has been customary 
for decades, and although you don't claim to know much about such 
things, it never occurred to me that you might not understand it. 
Consider this a learning experience.

[Jon LaBadie]

On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 08:06:23PM -0000, Beartooth wrote:
...
>  
>  # passwd xxx
>  Changing password for user xxx.
>  New password: 
>  BAD PASSWORD: The password fails the dictionary check - it is based on a 
>  dictionary word
>  Retype new password: 
>  
>  	[at this point I gave it her password anyway.]
>  
>  passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
>   
Back in my UNIX days, when password minimum length was
5 characters, I found if I repeatedly entered the same
too short password, after about 4 complaints it silently
accepted the bad password :))

jl
-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jonfu(a)jgcomp.com

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Mon, 2020-02-24 at 18:23 +0000, Beartooth wrote:
>  	I had set my wife an account on one of my computers recently,
>  a 
>  Thinkpad E-series using MATE User Manager under F31. I suppose I may
>  have 
>  failed to set her password, though I doubt that intensely.
>  
>  	 This is a machine that never leaves my desk, despite being a 
>  laptop. 
>  
>  	 I typed in her usual password for logging in; I got this:
>  
>  su - tslg 
>  You are required to change your password immediately 
>  (administrator  enforced)
>  New password: 
>  BAD PASSWORD: The password fails the dictionary check - it is based
>  on a 
>  dictionary word
>  su: Authentication token manipulation error
>  
>  	Just for the record, it consists of first letters of a line of 
>  poetry, and does not resemble any word in any of the several
>  languages I 
>  know. (The app is probably just complaining of the length.) Nor had
>  I 
>  enforced any such requirement, nor would I.
>  
>  	useradd -h as root got me nothing that seemed to enable even
>  root 
>  to edit a user's data. (I tried -p and -u.) Can I do it?? 
>  -- 
>  Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
>  Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is
>  	Suppose I try the obvious: delete and re-add her. (She has not
>  yet 
>  touched this particular machine, so the account is still empty.) Will
>  she 
>  or I then be able to set the password she chooses? 
>  
>  	I don't mind an OS warning me of hazards I can judge better
>  than 
>  it can; but  I do take it amiss to be forbidden something trivial.
>  -- 
>  Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
>  Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is
>  _______________________________________________
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>  Fedora Code of Conduct: 
>  https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
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>   
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (o) [phone] |  mhw(a)WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (c) [phone] |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
ARIN whois: MHW9-ARIN       | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
PGP Key: 0xC0EB9675674627FF | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!

[Michael H. Warfield]

That was a miss-send.  Please ignore.

On Tue, 2020-02-25 at 21:52 -0500, Michael H. Warfield wrote:
>  On Mon, 2020-02-24 at 18:23 +0000, Beartooth wrote:
>  > 	I had set my wife an account on one of my computers recently,
>  > a 
>  > Thinkpad E-series using MATE User Manager under F31. I suppose I
>  > may
>  > have 
>  > failed to set her password, though I doubt that intensely.
>  > 
>  > 	 This is a machine that never leaves my desk, despite being a 
>  > laptop. 
>  > 
>  > 	 I typed in her usual password for logging in; I got this:
>  > 
>  > su - tslg 
>  > You are required to change your password immediately 
>  > (administrator  enforced)
>  > New password: 
>  > BAD PASSWORD: The password fails the dictionary check - it is based
>  > on a 
>  > dictionary word
>  > su: Authentication token manipulation error
>  > 
>  > 	Just for the record, it consists of first letters of a line of 
>  > poetry, and does not resemble any word in any of the several
>  > languages I 
>  > know. (The app is probably just complaining of the length.) Nor had
>  > I 
>  > enforced any such requirement, nor would I.
>  > 
>  > 	useradd -h as root got me nothing that seemed to enable even
>  > root 
>  > to edit a user's data. (I tried -p and -u.) Can I do it?? 
>  > -- 
>  > Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
>  > Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is
>  > 	Suppose I try the obvious: delete and re-add her. (She has not
>  > yet 
>  > touched this particular machine, so the account is still empty.)
>  > Will
>  > she 
>  > or I then be able to set the password she chooses? 
>  > 
>  > 	I don't mind an OS warning me of hazards I can judge better
>  > than 
>  > it can; but  I do take it amiss to be forbidden something trivial.
>  > -- 
>  > Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
>  > Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is
>  > _______________________________________________
>  > users mailing list -- users(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  > To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  > Fedora Code of Conduct: 
>  > https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
>  > List Guidelines: 
>  > https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
>  > List Archives: 
>  > https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
>  > 
>  
>  _______________________________________________
>  users mailing list -- users(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  Fedora Code of Conduct: 
>  https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
>  List Guidelines: 
>  https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
>  List Archives: 
>  https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail] 
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (o) [phone] |  mhw(a)WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (c) [phone] |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
ARIN whois: MHW9-ARIN       | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
PGP Key: 0xC0EB9675674627FF | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!