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Getting an Authentication token manipulation error when trying to change my user password

46

I am logging in to my Ubuntu Server using my username. Once I am logged in I am typing passwd

command. Entering a new password but a second after getting following error messages:
passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
passwd: password unchanged

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12

What is wrong here? How can I change my password otherwise if I don't have access to that server
physically, i.e. I am connecting remotely with ssh using terminal.
passw ord-recovery

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edited Dec 15 '13 at 14:22

Braiam
37.3k

asked Aug 18 '11 at 13:55

Bakhtiyor
16

88

152

2,719

15

47

72

The first prompt asks for your CURRENT password. Have you done that, cause if you just typed the new one,
you'll get the error message you say.. Pavlos G. Aug 18 '11 at 14:03

i have the same problem, and find the answer from this link help.ubuntu.com/community/LostPassword
blog.imammubin.com/reset-ubuntu-passwd/2014/07/07 try this code: mount -rw -o remount / hope this
helpfull.. Mubin Jul 7 '14 at 4:50

Linked
2

@Mubin: That's for an emergency recovery from single-user mode. Since this question is about a logged-in
user, we can safely assume it's not a recovery scenario. MSalters Apr 26 at 13:19

Authenticate user that has no password?

0

Single user forgot password can't do updates

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11 Answers

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Trying to change administrator password

0

Password Problems

If you insert the wrong passwd

23

-2

$ passwd
Changing password for rinzwind.
(current) UNIX password:
passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
passwd: password unchanged

administrative passwd how to change it in the root

0

Administartor password can't change

0

you get this error. If you are sure to have inserted the correct one this error might also show up if you
are using shadowed password files and the shadow doesnt have entry for this user
(basically /etc/passwd has an entry for this user, but /etc/shadow does not).
In order to fix this, you can either add the entry manually (make a backup first!!!) or recreate the
shadow file with pwconv (Manpage).
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answered Aug 18 '11 at 14:09

Password forget
0

Ubuntu 13.10 password help

355

How do I reset a lost administrative password?

97

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Authentication token manipulation error

see more linked questions

Rinzwind
130k

13

248

344

Related
1
1

+1 my passwd/shadow set up was all messed up. Your pwconv hint was a lifesaver! djhaskin987 Aug 12
'14 at 13:55
@djhaskin987 3 years later (minus 6 days). Glad it helped you :D Rinzwind Aug 12 '14 at 14:14

add a comment

97

Authentication token manipulation error

Authentication token manipulation error when I try to

change password

Authentication Manipulation Error when trying to reset

my password

Do these two things just to make sure:

27

mount -o remount,rw /

Password recovery - usual options fail

This first part remounts the root partition as read/write since it was only in read mode. It actually
dismounts the root partition and then mounts it again as read/write.

Reset Administrative Forgotten Password?

Then do this:

chmod 640 /etc/shadow

Cannot access master account

Then do the sudo passwd USER . It should work after that. This part gives the correct permissions to
the shadow file.
share improve this answer

edited Jul 7 '15 at 15:49

Luis Alvarado

slm
1,030

answered Mar 30 '12 at 20:02

12

19

103k

105

392

577

How to fix authentication password, when password is

rejected?

Administartor password can't change

This worked for me. Could anyone help me understand what I just did? Stew Apr 25 '14 at 17:33

@Stew updated answer to explain better. Luis Alvarado Apr 25 '14 at 17:35

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Great, thanks Luis! Should I change the root directory back to Read mode when I finish with this? Stew Apr
25 '14 at 17:58
1

@Stew no. It should stay like Read/Write. This is only when you want to fsck the disk for some problems not
booting correctly or other issues. By default Ubuntu Server/Desktop should boot with root in Read/Write
mode. So this method should not be needed after the problem (any that caused the issue) was solved.
Luis Alvarado Apr 25 '14 at 20:43

add a comment

change or find Authentication password

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Here is what I found

mount -o remount,rw /
passwd
passwd: Authentication token manipulation error

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Showed no errors.

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ls -l /etc/passwd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r----- 1 root
-rw------- 1 root

/etc/group /etc/shadow /etc/shadowroot

767 May 7 16:45 /etc/group
root
1380 May 7 16:45 /etc/passwd
shadow 1025 May 8 09:11 /etc/shadow
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Looks normal.

Sort a binary file without loading it into memory or

sudo cat /etc/shadow |grep oracle

using a temporary file
oracle:$6$FsPqyplr$DrIvjFDSx0ipHmECMw1AU5hTrbNMnnkGRdFlaQcM.p3Rdu2OLjY20tzUTW61HlFH16cal56rKlLuW4j2mK9D.:15833:0:99999:7:::
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Showed user and encrypted password.

sudo cat /etc/shadow- |grep oracle

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revealing clothing

Showed nothing. Not sure what that means but doesn't look right.

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sudo passwd -d oracle

passwd

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Hope this helps.

share improve this answer

Does anybody not store salts?

answered May 8 '13 at 13:30

Bernard
171

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much energy to enlighten its matter when its
massive gravity prevents light to escape?
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many times, does that affect the probability of the
next toss?

If you are using SELinux, running this command fixed the issue for me.

restorecon -v /etc/shadow

Thanks to this conversation for the solution.

share improve this answer

answered Aug 23 '14 at 6:39

sffc
211

add a comment

Also, ensure that your entry in /etc/passwd is not mal-formed. If you have the incorrect number of
colons in the line for your user entry, the 'passwd' command cannot parse it and refuses to continue
with the exact error message provided.
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answered May 8 '12 at 0:10

Magellan
90

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add a comment

Another problem might be that the disk is full. I got this error when resetting a password, and later
checked my disks with df and found that no space is available on my disk. After freeing some I could
reset the password without problems.
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answered Apr 14 '14 at 10:14

erikb
133

14

add a comment

Check if you have messed up the common-password file in /etc/pam.d/ . This will cause errors if
your present password does not match the one that common-password wants. In my case this was
the reason why I was getting that authentication token error.
share improve this answer

edited Nov 17 '14 at 5:27

Aibara Iduas
4,124

answered Nov 15 '14 at 6:02

Revanth Kumar
23

49

131

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pam-auth-update

fixed my messed /etc/pam.d/common-password

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edited Jun 5 '15 at 16:22

A.B.
45k

answered Jun 5 '15 at 14:50

jouell
8

90

162

11

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This issue occurred due to the incorrect permissions set to /usr/bin/passwd .

Please try to set the permission as 4511 by using the command:

chmod 4511 /usr/bin/passwd

This will resolve the issue.

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edited Sep 5 '15 at 9:38

Fabby
14.8k

answered Sep 5 '15 at 9:22

Murlo
11

40

113

11

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! ;-) Could you please review my edits and also review the editing help to improve the
readability of your questions in the future... ;-) Fabby Sep 5 '15 at 9:39
add a comment

In Lubuntu 15.04 I had the same token manipulation error. I figured this is due to the file system still in
read only mode.
Using:
mount -o remount,rw / passwd passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
This does not work but this does: mount -o remount, --rw / passwd passwd: Authentication token
manipulation error
share improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '15 at 16:46

cecil toiletseat
11

add a comment

The error says that the PAM module (see: man pam_chauthtok ) was unable to obtain the new
authentication token. This may happen on Ubuntu when the user doesn't have default password set
yet and passwd is still requesting it, so the workaround is to change the password using root

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privileges, e.g.
sudo passwd $USER

so you won't be asked for the current password and the error won't happen.
See also: Authentication token manipulation error
share improve this answer

answered yesterday

kenorb
1,456

14

24

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protected by Community Jan 29 at 15:38

Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be
removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).
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