How To Change Straight Talk Account Password
Passwords have been a keystone of account security for sixty years, predating Unix past nearly a decade. Learn how to employ either the command line or the GNOME desktop environs to manage your passwords in Linux.
How to Cull a Strong Password
The computer password was born from necessity. With the advent of multiuser fourth dimension-sharing reckoner systems, the importance of separating and protecting people's information became credible, and the password solved that problem.
Passwords are withal the most common form of business relationship hallmark. Two-gene and multifactor authentication enhances password protection, and biometric hallmark provides an alternative method of identification. Yet, the expert erstwhile countersign is still with us and will be for a long time to come. This ways yous need to know how best to create and use them. Some of the older practices are no longer valid.
Here are some basic password rules:
- Don't use passwords at all: Apply passphrases instead. Iii or four unrelated words connected past punctuation, symbols, or numbers make it much harder to crevice than a string of gobbledygook or a password with vowels swapped out for numbers.
- Don't re-use passwords: Don't do this on the same or different systems.
- Don't share your passwords: Passwords are private. Don't share them with others.
- Don't base passwords on personally significant information: Don't use family members' names, sports teams, favorite bands, or anything else that could be socially engineered or deduced from your social media.
- Don't apply pattern passwords: Don't base of operations passwords on patterns or positions of keys, such equally qwerty, 1q2w3e, and so on.
Password expiration policies are no longer best do. If you prefer strong, secure passphrases, you'll only accept to modify them if you suspect they've been compromised. Regular password changes inadvertently promote poor countersign choices because many people employ a base of operations password and just add a date or digit to the terminate of information technology.
The National Institute of Standards and Engineering has written extensively on passwords and user identification and authentication. Their comments are publicly available in Special Publication 800-63-3: Digital Authentication Guidelines.
The passwd File
Historically, Unix-like operating systems stored passwords, forth with other information regarding each business relationship, in the "/etc/passwd" file. Today, the "/etc/passwd" file withal holds account information, but the encrypted passwords are held in the "/etc/shadow" file, which has restricted access. Past contrast, anyone can await at the "/etc/passwd" file.
To peek inside the "/etc/passwd" file, type this command:
less /etc/passwd
The contents of the file are displayed. Let'southward await at the details for this account called "mary."
Each line represents a single account (or a plan that has a "user" account). In that location are the post-obit seven colon-delimited fields:
- User name: The login name for the account.
- Password: An "ten" indicates the password is stored in the /etc/shadow file.
- User ID: The user identifier for this business relationship.
- Grouping ID: The group identifier for this account.
- GECOS: This stands for General Electric Comprehensive Operating Supervisor. Today, the GECOS field holds a prepare of comma-delimited information about an business relationship. This can include items similar a person's total proper name, room number, or office and home telephone numbers.
- Home: The path to the business relationship'south home directory.
- Shell: Started when the person logs in to the computer.
Empty fields are represented by a colon.
Incidentally, the finger command pulls its information from the GECOS field.
finger mary
RELATED: How to Use the finger Command on Linux
The shadow File
To look inside the "/etc/shadow" file, you lot must use sudo:
sudo less /etc/shadow
The file is displayed. For every entry in the "/etc/passwd" file, in that location should be a matching entry in the "/etc/shadow" file.
Each line represents a single account, and there are nine colon-delimited fields:
- User proper name: The login proper name for the business relationship.
- Encrypted password: The encrypted password for the account.
- Last change: The date on which the password was last changed.
- Minimum Days: The minimum number of days required betwixt countersign changes. The person has to wait this number of days before he tin alter his password. If this field contains a cypher, he tin can alter his password as often as he likes.
- Maximum Days: The maximum number of days required between countersign changes. Typically, this field contains a very large number. The value prepare for "mary" is 99,999 days, which is over 27 years.
- Alert Days: The number of days in advance of a password expiration engagement to display a reminder bulletin.
- Reset Lock-out: Later a password expires, the system waits this number of days (a grace catamenia) before it disables the account.
- Account expiration date: The date on which the possessor of the business relationship will no longer be able to log in. If this field is bare, the account never expires.
- Reserve field: A blank field for possible futurity use.
Empty fields are represented by a colon.
Getting the "Last change" Field as a Date
The Unix epoch started on Jan one, 1970. The value for the "Concluding alter" field is eighteen,209. This is the number of days after January 1, 1970, the password for the account "mary" was changed.
Use this command to see the "Concluding change" value equally a date:
date -d "1970-01-01 18209 days"
The appointment is shown as midnight on the solar day the password was last inverse. In this example, it was November 9, 2019.
The passwd Command
You use the passwd command to change your password, and—if you lot have sudo privileges—the passwords of others.
To change your password, use the passwd command with no parameters:
passwd
Y'all must blazon your current countersign and your new one twice.
Irresolute Someone Else's Countersign
To change the password of another business relationship, you must use sudo, and provide the name of the account:
sudo passwd mary
You must blazon your password to verify you have superuser privileges. Type the new password for the account, and then blazon it again to ostend.
Forcing a Countersign Alter
To force someone to change her password the adjacent time she logs in, employ the -due east (expire) option:
sudo passwd -e mary
You're told the countersign expiration date has been changed.
When the possessor of the business relationship "mary" adjacent logs in, she'll take to change her password:
Lock an Account
To lock an account, typepasswd with the -fifty (lock) selection:
sudo passwd -l mary
You're told the countersign expiration engagement was inverse.
The owner of the business relationship will no longer be able to log in to the computer with her password. To unlock the account, utilize the -u (unlock) option:
sudo passwd -u mary
Again, yous're informed that the countersign expiry data was inverse:
Over again, the possessor of the business relationship will no longer be able to log into the calculator with her password. Notwithstanding, she could still log in with an authentication method that doesn't crave her password, such as SSH keys.
If you actually desire to lock someone out of the computer, you need to elapse the account.
RELATED: How to Create and Install SSH Keys From the Linux Shell
The chage Command
No, there isn't an "n" in chage. It stands for "modify age." You tin can utilize the chage command to set an expiration date for an unabridged account.
Permit's take a wait at the current settings for the "mary" account, with the -l (list) pick:
sudo chage -l mary
The expiration appointment for the account is set to "never."
To change the expiration engagement, employ the -E (expiry) pick. If you gear up information technology to zero, this is interpreted as "zero days from the Unix epoch," i.eastward., January one, 1970.
Blazon the following:
sudo chage -E0 mary
Recheck the business relationship expiration date:
sudo chage -fifty mary
Because the expiration engagement is in the past, this account is now truly locked, regardless of any authentication method the owner might use.
To reinstate the account, use the same command with -one equally the numerical parameter:
sudo chage -E -1 mary
Type the post-obit to double-check:
sudo chage -l mary
The business relationship expiration date is reset to "never."
Changing an Account Password in GNOME
Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions utilize GNOME every bit the default desktop environment. Yous can use the "Settings" dialog to change the password for an account.
To practise so, in the arrangement carte, click the Settings icon.
In the Settings dialog, click "Details" in the pane on the left, and and so click "Users."
Click the business relationship for which you want to alter the password; in this example, we'll select "Mary Quinn." Click the account, and then click "Unlock."
Yous're prompted for your password. Afterward you're authenticated, "Mary's" details get editable. Click the "Password" field.
In the "Change Password" dialog, click the "Set a Password At present" radio button.
Blazon the new password in the "New Password" and "Verify New Password" fields.
If the password entries match, the "Change" push button turns dark-green; click it to save the new countersign.
In other desktop environments, the account tools will be similar to those in GNOME.
Stay Safety, Stay Secure
For threescore years, the countersign has been an essential office of online account security, and information technology isn't going away whatsoever time soon.
This is why it's important to administrate them wisely. If you understand the mechanisms of passwords in Linux and adopt the all-time password practices, you'll keep your system secure.
Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/447443/how-to-change-account-passwords-on-linux/
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