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I have a linux pc on which several users are configured to login. for the same PC i have the root access (username and password). I have lost one of the user accounts password. How to get back the password for that particular user account. I have tried the following being a root user

passwd <login name>
Enter new password
confirm new password

But its not fruitful could you please suggest some ways of recoverng the password.

Also,I got to know that passwords are stored in /etc/shadow file in encrypted form. Does anyone know how to get the decrypted form of encrypted password.

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  • This question doesn't really seem to be about programming; I think it would be more appropriate for another site in the Stack Overflow network - perhaps ServerFault?
    – Philip Kendall
    Jun 20, 2012 at 5:38
  • Why do you need to know the passwords of others?
    – kev
    Jun 20, 2012 at 5:39
  • It is not encrypted, it is hashed. That's a difference, encryption implies that it can be decrypted, which is not the case, as a hash is a one-way function with no means to reverse the process.
    – Bobby
    Jun 20, 2012 at 12:03

3 Answers 3

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The whole point of storing hashed passwords in /etc/shadow is so that it is not possible to retrieve the plaintext password, so there is no way to determine what the current password is. Your only option is to reset the password using passwd <username> as root.

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If you wish to try to brute force it, the hashes are stored in /etc/shadow. They are salted, so a rainbow table attack will likely not work. You can try John the Ripper to brute force it, but unless the word is a dictionary word or otherwise very weak, I do not think you will have much luck.

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  • This! OP could retrieve the shadow file and get the salt and hash method.
    – goetz
    Mar 16, 2017 at 23:49
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You must enter the command

passwd $user

where $user is replaced with the account username that has lost the password.

If you're just entering passwd naked, with no arguments, then passwd assumes that you're wanting to change the password of the currently logged in user.

Also, make sure you're using su root to start a root shell, running sudo, or such.

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    this will allow you to change the account password, not recover it, but after that the user can change it by entering passwd in a terminal window.
    – user141092
    Jun 20, 2012 at 5:40

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