Change Shadow Password

Question

I am looking for a sed command to change the line:

userA:$6$lhkjhl$sdlfhlmLMHQSDFM374FGSDFkjfh/7mD/354dshkKHQSkljhsd.sdmfjlk57HJ/:95170::::::

to

userA:$6$sLdkjf$576sdKUKJGKmlk565oiuljkljpi/9Fg/rst3587zet324etze.dsfgLIMLmdf/:34650::::::

Is this hard-coded? Or are the changes you want in a bash variable? — SIGSTACKFAULT
– SIGSTACKFAULT, Commented Oct 18, 2017 at 15:21
@Zachary Brady i will put it on a script to change the password for the same user on many servers — Med
– Med, Commented Oct 18, 2017 at 15:30
On Linux, you can use chpasswd -e to give it the already-encrypted password. — Jeff Schaller
– Jeff Schaller ♦, Commented Oct 18, 2017 at 15:50

sborsky · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-18 15:51:22Z

instead:

chpasswd -e <<< 'userA:yourencryptedpassword'

If you were going to use sed - despite the risks:

To set a password - no matter what it was before:

sed -i.sedbackup 's/^\(userA:\)[^:]*\(:.*\)$/\1yournewpassword\2/' /etc/shadow

To replace a specific password string:

sed -i.sedbackup 's/^\(userA:\)youroldpassword\(:.*\)$/\1yournewpassword\2/' /etc/shadow

Stone · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-24 10:11:24Z

1

Instead of the sed command you should do this:

usermod -p 'encrypted pw' user

answered Feb 24, 2021 at 10:11

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