"Resetting or changing the root password in Aria Automation failed with the error: 'passwd: Module is unknown.'"

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

Failed to reset or change the root password through the console, SSH, or single-user mode.

Error:
    passwd: Module is unknown
  passwd: password unchanged

Environment

Aria Automation 8.x

Cause

 The root password reset issue was caused by a misconfiguration in the /etc/pam.d/system-password file, specifically related to the pam_cracklib.so module, which was either absent or incorrectly set up. This resulted in the failure of the password change command.

Resolution

Modifications were made to the /etc/pam.d/system-password file, replacing pam_cracklib.so with pam_pwquality.so, enabling seamless password resets.

An example of the default configuration for the /etc/pam.d/system-password file.

    # Begin /etc/pam.d/system-password

    # use sha512 hash for encryption, use shadow, and try to use any previously
    # defined authentication token (chosen password) set by any prior module
    password  required    pam_pwquality.so  retry=3
    password  required    pam_unix.so       sha512 shadow use_authtok