Introduction – You need to use the passwd command. It is used to update the user’s authentication token(s) i.e. password. Let us see how to change the root user password on CentOS Linux version 5/6/7 and 8 using the command line.
How to change root password on CentOS Linux
The procedure for changing the password of root is as follows:
- First, log in to the CentOS Linux server using ssh or console
- Open a shell prompt and type the passwd command to change root password in CentOS Linux
- The actual command to change the password for root on CentOS Linux is sudo passwd root
NOTE: Please note that {vivek@centos7:~ }$ is my shell prompt. You need to type commands after the $ prompt.
CentOS Linux change root password command
I am going to log in to my CentOS Linux 6.x/7.x/8.x server using the ssh command:
{vivek@centos7:~ }$ ssh vivek@centos7-server
Once logged in enter the command passwd as follows:
{vivek@centos7:~ }$ sudo passwd root
First you need to type the password for vivek user. After that the passwd command asks for the new password, which you will have to enter two times:
Changing root account passwords on an CentOS Linux based system
Slightly different procedure for changing passwords in CentOS Linux
One can use the following procedure too:
{vivek@centos7:~ }$ ssh user@your-centos-server-name-ip
Become a root user via the su command or sudo command:
{vivek@centos7:~ }$ sudo -i
OR
{vivek@centos7:~ }$ su -
Finally change your root user password:
# passwd
How to delete user’s password
We can delete a user’s password and make it empty. This is a quick way to disable a password for an account. For example, set the user named ‘vivek’ account passwordless:
$ sudo passwd -d {user-name}
$ sudo passwd -d vivek
Please do not make root user’s password empty for security reasons.
Force user to change their password at the next login
We can immediately expire an account’s password. This in effect can force a user to change their password at the user’s next login as per their needs:
$ sudo passwd -e {user-name}
$ sudo passwd -e wendy
Getting help
Type the following command:
$ passwd --help
$ man passwd
Conclusion
To change your own password on a CentOS, run:
$ passwd
Set up a new password for root:
$ sudo passwd root
And to change password for any other users:
$ sudo passwd userName
$ sudo passwd tom
This page explained the process for changing the password of root user using the passwd command on a CentOS Linux. See CentOS Linux documents page here for more info or read other tutorials:
- Linux Login as Superuser ( root user )
- How can I log in as root?
- How do I become superuser on Ubuntu Linux using su/sudo?
- Ubuntu Linux root Password (Default Password)
- How to create a new sudo user on Ubuntu Linux server
- How to change root password on RHEL ( Red Hat Enterprise Linux)
- How to change root password on CentOS Linux
- How to change root password on Alpine Linux
- How to change root password on SUSE / OpenSUSE Linux
- Change the Password in UNIX
- How to change root password on Debian Linux
- How to change root password on Fedora Linux
- How to change root password on macOS Unix
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Open KVM console or ssh into the box:
ssh rudra@linode-server-ip
su -
passwd