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Getting an Authentication token manipulation error when trying to change my user password
46
asked
4 years ago
yesterday
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What is wrong here? How can I change my password otherwise if I don't have access to that server
physically, i.e. I am connecting remotely with ssh using terminal.
passw ord-recovery
Braiam
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Bakhtiyor
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The first prompt asks for your CURRENT password. Have you done that, cause if you just typed the new one,
you'll get the error message you say.. Pavlos G. Aug 18 '11 at 14:03
i have the same problem, and find the answer from this link help.ubuntu.com/community/LostPassword
blog.imammubin.com/reset-ubuntu-passwd/2014/07/07 try this code: mount -rw -o remount / hope this
helpfull.. Mubin Jul 7 '14 at 4:50
Linked
2
@Mubin: That's for an emergency recovery from single-user mode. Since this question is about a logged-in
user, we can safely assume it's not a recovery scenario. MSalters Apr 26 at 13:19
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11 Answers
active
oldest
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Password Problems
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-2
$ passwd
Changing password for rinzwind.
(current) UNIX password:
passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
passwd: password unchanged
you get this error. If you are sure to have inserted the correct one this error might also show up if you
are using shadowed password files and the shadow doesnt have entry for this user
(basically /etc/passwd has an entry for this user, but /etc/shadow does not).
In order to fix this, you can either add the entry manually (make a backup first!!!) or recreate the
shadow file with pwconv (Manpage).
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Password forget
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Rinzwind
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+1 my passwd/shadow set up was all messed up. Your pwconv hint was a lifesaver! djhaskin987 Aug 12
'14 at 13:55
@djhaskin987 3 years later (minus 6 days). Glad it helped you :D Rinzwind Aug 12 '14 at 14:14
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97
27
mount -o remount,rw /
This first part remounts the root partition as read/write since it was only in read mode. It actually
dismounts the root partition and then mounts it again as read/write.
Then do this:
Then do the sudo passwd USER . It should work after that. This part gives the correct permissions to
the shadow file.
share improve this answer
Luis Alvarado
slm
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This worked for me. Could anyone help me understand what I just did? Stew Apr 25 '14 at 17:33
@Stew updated answer to explain better. Luis Alvarado Apr 25 '14 at 17:35
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Great, thanks Luis! Should I change the root directory back to Read mode when I finish with this? Stew Apr
25 '14 at 17:58
1
@Stew no. It should stay like Read/Write. This is only when you want to fsck the disk for some problems not
booting correctly or other issues. By default Ubuntu Server/Desktop should boot with root in Read/Write
mode. So this method should not be needed after the problem (any that caused the issue) was solved.
Luis Alvarado Apr 25 '14 at 20:43
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I'm not sure how it happened. A sudo user created my account then deleted it then created it again.
No change.
sudo pwck
Showed no errors.
sudo grpck
Showed no errors.
ls -l /etc/passwd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r----- 1 root
-rw------- 1 root
Looks normal.
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revealing clothing
Showed nothing. Not sure what that means but doesn't look right.
So the solution was to delete the password then reset new password.
Bernard
171
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If you are using SELinux, running this command fixed the issue for me.
restorecon -v /etc/shadow
sffc
211
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Also, ensure that your entry in /etc/passwd is not mal-formed. If you have the incorrect number of
colons in the line for your user entry, the 'passwd' command cannot parse it and refuses to continue
with the exact error message provided.
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Magellan
90
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Another problem might be that the disk is full. I got this error when resetting a password, and later
checked my disks with df and found that no space is available on my disk. After freeing some I could
reset the password without problems.
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erikb
133
14
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Check if you have messed up the common-password file in /etc/pam.d/ . This will cause errors if
your present password does not match the one that common-password wants. In my case this was
the reason why I was getting that authentication token error.
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Aibara Iduas
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Revanth Kumar
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pam-auth-update
A.B.
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Fabby
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Murlo
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Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! ;-) Could you please review my edits and also review the editing help to improve the
readability of your questions in the future... ;-) Fabby Sep 5 '15 at 9:39
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In Lubuntu 15.04 I had the same token manipulation error. I figured this is due to the file system still in
read only mode.
Using:
mount -o remount,rw / passwd passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
This does not work but this does: mount -o remount, --rw / passwd passwd: Authentication token
manipulation error
share improve this answer
cecil toiletseat
11
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The error says that the PAM module (see: man pam_chauthtok ) was unable to obtain the new
authentication token. This may happen on Ubuntu when the user doesn't have default password set
yet and passwd is still requesting it, so the workaround is to change the password using root
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privileges, e.g.
sudo passwd $USER
so you won't be asked for the current password and the error won't happen.
See also: Authentication token manipulation error
share improve this answer
answered yesterday
kenorb
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