How do I set the password of a new user after the account has already been created?

linux password useradd

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Solution 1

Easiest way to do this from the command line is to use the passwd command with root privileges.

passwd username

From man 1 passwd

NAME
       passwd - update user's authentication token
SYNOPSIS
       passwd  [-k]  [-l]  [-u [-f]] [-d] [-n mindays] [-x maxdays]
       [-w warndays] [-i inactivedays] [-S] [--stdin] [username]
DESCRIPTION
       The passwd utility is used to update user's authentication token(s).

After you set the user password, you can force the user to change it on next login using the chage command (also with root privileges) which expires the password.

chage -d 0 username

When the user successfully authenticates with the password you set, the user will automatically be prompted to change it. After a successful password change, the user will be disconnected, forcing re-authentication with the new password.

See man 1 chage for more information on password expiry.

Solution 2

It's fairly simple. From the command line issue either

sudo passwd USERNAME

and you'll be prompted to change the users password. You may also su to the user in question and then run 'passwd'

Useradd doesn't ask for password. adduser does.

Solution 3

After adding new user if you are loggedin as a 'root' then you can set the password using command

passwd <username>

Or, if you are not root, you can run

sudo passwd <username>

To set the password.

Or if you are root then you can 'su' to the user and run 'passwd' to set the password.

su <username>
passwd

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Paul

Senior Aerospace Engineer Specialties: Multiphysics Modeling and Simulation Heterogeneous Multiscale Methods Computational Orbital Mechanics Computational Electromagnetics Computational Solid Mechanics Computational Fluid Dynamics Computational Heat Transfer Finite Difference Methods Computational Robotics Finite Element Methods Finite Volume Methods Numerical Analysis Calculus Jokes Analogies Education: PhD. Computational Science M.S. Computational Science M.S. Applied Mathematics B.S. Mathematics and Spanish Past: Computational Scientist Thermal Engineer NASA Intern NSF Fellow Lecturer.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Paul almost 2 years

I used the 'useradd' command to create a new account, but I did so without specifying the password. Now, when the user tries to log in, it asks him for a password. If I didn't set it up initially, how do I set the password now?
Paul almost 12 years

Oh... ok! :) That's simple enough... I thought passwd only resets one's own account.
George M almost 12 years

If you leave off a username, it defaults to your account.
eyoung100 almost 10 years

Also if you can login as the user you want to change the password of, login as that user and type passwd.