# Locked Out Of User Accounts



## Levon (Jun 11, 2004)

I downloaded the new system update for Mac OS X 10.3.3 when I restarted I was locked out of all 5 of my user accounts. I am able to go into single user mode, but that is the extent of my knowledge. I don't have a Mac OS X CD, nor would it matter because my CD-R drive is broken. People I've talked to (COMPUSA, BestBuy) say the best thing to do is buy a CD Rom drive for like $600, which I AM NOT going to do. I think they just want my money, because others who I have talked to (Mac Experts) say I should be able to get into the OS using single user mode, which is unpassword protected root. I mean, if you have GOD access to the system how hard is it to change the password on the account, or even add a new user for that matter.

Levon Clark,
http://www.datawhore.org/


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## Zammy-Sam (Jun 11, 2004)

Hi Clark and welcome to the forum.
I am not a single user expert, but I have an idea how you can get a CDrom work on your mac. Simply look for a firewire Cdrom (like this maybe) and you will be able to read CDs at a price around $100.
Now, let's wait for ElDiablo to come around and help you changing your user passwords (if possible at all) over the single user mode.
Still I wonder how you lost those passwords or how they got changed. You are not trying to hack into another system, aren't you?


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## Untitled (Jun 11, 2004)

What mac are you using? Unless you are using an iMac, you can pick up an internal cd-rom or even cd-rw for that matter for a very cheap price.

For your password troubles, you can try using the htpasswd utility to set the passwords. I am guessing the file somehow got corrupted in which case this program should set the passwords.
To change the root password, type
htpasswd -n root
and do what the terminal requests of you. From here you can log onto the root account, and change the passwords for all the users.

If this does not work, your options are to either get a cd-rom and an install disk, or find where the password file is, (I can't remember where it is at the moment) and change the passwords there. Of course this will require a follow up to explain the instructions there 

Good luck


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## michaelsanford (Jun 20, 2004)

Untitled said:
			
		

> To change the root password, type
> htpasswd -n root



No, that's not quite right.

`htpasswd` is a utility included with Apache web server that generates .htaccess passwords and doesn't touch the user account login passwords.

What you need is `niutil` which modifies entries in the NetInfo database, which stores usernames, passwords, groups and so forth.

Editing user account properties from the terminal can be a little complicated but there is a thread somewhere about using it...


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## TommyWillB (Jun 20, 2004)

Using niutil command line is very complicated... (At least for me.)

You can take the hard drive out and put it into a machine with a working CD-ROM... Boot from an OS X (not sure if it matters which version) disc... reset the password... put the drive back in your machine.

You might even be able to use the CD-ROM (DVD-ROM) that came with your Mac.




...the more interesting question is why this happened... I've never heard of such a thing.


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## Untitled (Jun 20, 2004)

Pardon me for the false information there. I do know I used that method somewhere else. Am I thinking of linux?


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## michaelsanford (Jun 20, 2004)

Untitled don't worry about it...you're probably thinking of a time you created an .htaccess file with passwords for protecting folders in your web server; it is indeed on linux (deceptively in /usr/bin/htpasswd). No harm done 

TommyWillB has two good points. Firstly that niutil is complicated to use (though not wholly unmanageable) and two that you should try to figure out why this happened in the first place.

(annecdote)Something similar once happened to me on RedHat 9...my accounts somehow were all corrupted so that the "Expire" date was in the past, I believe the default date of the CMOS clock (something like Dec 1 1978). Of course me, being the overly-anal security freak that I am, disabled root login at the GDM, woops. Unfortunately my Shrike solution won't translate to a MacOS X solution...(/annecdote)


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