Revision as of 01:22, 6 June 2015

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OS X password recovery

In general terms, before any specific step to change the password, we need to first

1. Boot on single-user mode
2. Mount the system in read-write mode

# /sbin/fsck -fy
# mount -uw /

How to change a password on OS X 10.4 or older

Once the root filesystem is mounted r/w on single user mode, the procedure is as follows:

# sh /etc/rc
# passwd my_user

How to change a password on OS X 10.5 with no installation DVD

Once the root filesystem is mounted r/w on single user mode, the procedure is as follows:

1. Launch the directory services
2. Change/reset the password
3. Reboot the system

In short, the list of commands are:

# launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
# dscl . -passwd /Users/<username> <password>
# reboot

How to change a password on OS X 10.8 with no installation DVD

Once the root filesystem is mounted r/w on single user mode, the procedure is as follows:

1. Launch the directory services
2. Change/reset the password
3. Reboot the system

In short, the list of commands are:

# launchctl load launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist
# dscl . -passwd /Users/<username> <password>
# reboot

How to change a password on XServe

Once the root filesystem is mounted r/w on single user mode, the procedure is as follows:

# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /users/$newuser _writers_passwd administrator
# passwd administrator
# reboot

How to create a new user with administrative privileges

First write down the gid which comes from admin group

# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -read /groups/admin

Lets say, the gid is 20, then from command line execute:

# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /users/my_user
# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /users/my_user uid my_user_id
# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /users/my_user realname "My User Real Name"
# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /users/my_user passwd "my_user_passwd"
# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /users/my_user gid 20
# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /users/my_user shell "/bin/bash"
# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /users/my_user home "/Users/my_user"
# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /users/my_user _writers_passwd my_user
# passwd my_user
# ditto /System/Library/UserTemplate/English.lproj /Users/my_user
# chown -R my_user:staff /Users/my_user
# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -read /users/my_user
# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -append /groups/wheel users my_user
# nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -append /groups/admin users my_user