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9

Macs work well in Windows corporate environments, but a lot of companies require you to change your password after a period of time (3 months for example).

How do you change your Windows domain password without having to boot a PC?

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Click the checkmark next to the correct answer to accept it. :) – Sasha Chedygov Jan 11 '11 at 7:18

3 Answers

up vote 11 down vote accepted

From the terminal:

$ smbpasswd -U username -r DOMAIN_CONTROLLER_IP

$ smbpasswd -h
When run by root:
    smbpasswd [options] [username]
otherwise:
    smbpasswd [options]

options:
  -L                   local mode (must be first option)
  -h                   print this usage message
  -s                   use stdin for password prompt
  -c smb.conf file     Use the given path to the smb.conf file
  -D LEVEL             debug level
  -r MACHINE           remote machine
  -U USER              remote username
extra options when run by root or in local mode:
  -a                   add user
  -d                   disable user
  -e                   enable user
  -i                   interdomain trust account
  -m                   machine trust account
  -n                   set no password
  -W                   use stdin ldap admin password
  -w PASSWORD          ldap admin password
  -x                   delete user
  -R ORDER             name resolve order
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I posted this here because every 3 months I forget how to do this and figure someone else might benefit from this information. – Harvey Aug 10 '09 at 15:59
5  
Unfortunately smbpasswd is no longer present in a clean install of Lion. – Nate Aug 3 '11 at 18:15
1  
If you're running Homebrew, you may want to try running brew install https://raw.github.com/vertis/homebrew/master/Library/Formula/samba.rb – Pål Brattberg Oct 24 '11 at 9:15
For Lion, you can also install samba via mac ports. It worked for me. – Gareth Jan 19 '12 at 17:01
DOMAIN_CONTROLLER_IP can also be the name of the domain controller and you can know it with net rpc info -W DOMAIN_NAME -U USERNAME. – Vanni Sep 26 '12 at 9:19
up vote 9 down vote

Another suggestion is to log in to your company's Email Web Portal. Many companies are using MS Exchange which supports changing your password through your web email session. I had this exact issue with users who were not on macs, but instead would never touch a machine that was part of the Active Directory. The webmail/password change interface made this possible and it worked for several hundred users. I must admit the failure messages were quite cryptic and utterly useless. If the password change fails because your new password lacks the complexity, it will likely fail at telling you that. So just be aware of that one limitation.

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Ah, I should have mentioned that I would have done that if it worked at my company. It always says it works and does nothing. Good suggestion. – Harvey Aug 10 '09 at 16:26
The cryptic messages definately do not accurately describe whether the password change was succeful. The biggest problems I saw were related to passwords that did not meet the length, Uppercase/Lowercase, number and symbol within the password itself. You have to choose a very complex password for this to work correctly. – Axxmasterr Aug 10 '09 at 16:51
I should have added that if your password change fails because of rules, the command-line approach will give you some indication of failure while (in my experience) the web method just silently fails. However, always try the web portal method first, if available. – Harvey Jan 12 '11 at 22:52
up vote 1 down vote

You can create a password boot disk with the following password live CDs:

  1. Ophcrack live CD
  2. Offline NT Password and Registry editor
  3. Windows Password reset for Mac
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protected by slhck♦ Mar 20 '12 at 17:08

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