Reset Password without reboot or sudo

**hailholyghost** · January 11th, 2015

Hello,

I forgot my password, which is also the root password to my linux box at work. I can still log in remotely and get shell access. I don't enter password at login because I use sshkeys (perhaps this is how I can get the password back?)

I cannot reboot because people are using the machine, and I don't have root access anyway.

I am getting desperate, and I realize this is my own fault for not writing it down.

any help is appreciated,
-Dave

**ajgreeny** · January 11th, 2015

Are there any other admin users on that machine that could be persuaded to reset your user password on your behalf with a temporary password, and then, for security, you can immediately change it to something else known only by you.

Of course, if it is essential that you get back to your original password you may have a problem.

**llamabr** · January 11th, 2015

You don't need sudo to change your password once you're logged in. Just issue the passwd command.

**Mark Phelps** · January 11th, 2015

how I can get the password back?

Basically -- you can't!

So-called password recovery apps only allow you to blank or reset an existing password, not recover it.

Also -- been a while since I used the "passwd" command, but (as indicated in the linked description), it firsts prompts for the EXISTING password -- which, if you don't get it right, I believe exits the command: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/.../passwd.1.html

**deadflowr** · January 11th, 2015

Originally Posted by llamabr

You don't need sudo to change your password once you're logged in. Just issue the passwd command.

You still need to enter the old password...

**hailholyghost** · January 11th, 2015

hello deadflowr, llamabr, and ajgreeny,

it looks like I'm going to have to talk to the other user in real life and ask him when I can reboot and go through standard password reset procedures. Otherwise I have to bring my laptop in every day to log in with ssh keys, which is silly.

I've been using Ubuntu for 8 years now and never had this problem... lesson learned.... I got overconfident.

-Dave

**hailholyghost** · January 15th, 2015

Hello,

I found a solution to this this morning:

if you logged in with ssh keys, all you have to do is tarball your ~/.ssh directory and copy to a new computer to log in. I think of the .ssh directory as like the password I forgot.

An additional solution to my problem, which is gone now, thank God.

-Dave