How do I reuse an account password in the shell?

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

You would like to re-use a previously used password in an Aria appliance in effort to reset the account expiration

Environment

Aria 8.18.x Product

Resolution

SSH to the appliance as "root", you may get a banner warning of a password expiration that needs to be renewed.

To re-use a previously used password for the "root" user, first clear the shadow file as follows:

cat /dev/null > /etc/security/opasswd

Then, invoke the passwd command re-use the password as follows:

passwd root

If you need to perform this for another user (e.g. "sshuser"), invoke the passwd as follows:

passwd sshuser

Confirm the account details as follows:

chage -l root
chage -l sshuser

Finally, set the max number of days between password changes, e.g. 365 days, as follows:

passwd -x 365 root
passwd -x 365 sshuser

Additional Information

Note: Above, the new date for password expiration will be 365 days after the date of the last password change, and not 365 days from "today".

E.g. if you are simply setting a new password expiration date without changing the password:

# chage -l root
Last password change                                    : Apr 17, 2025
Password expires                                        : Apr 07, 2027
Password inactive                                       : never
Account expires                                         : never
Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
Maximum number of days between password change          : 720
Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7

# passwd -x 365 root
passwd: password changed.
# chage -l root
Last password change                                    : Apr 17, 2025
Password expires                                        : Apr 17, 2026
Password inactive                                       : never
Account expires                                         : never
Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
Maximum number of days between password change          : 365
Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7

# passwd -x 720 root
passwd: password changed.
# chage -l root
Last password change                                    : Apr 17, 2025
Password expires                                        : Apr 07, 2027
Password inactive                                       : never
Account expires                                         : never
Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
Maximum number of days between password change          : 720
Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7