Section 2-5: If You Need to Change Your Password

[ Previous chapter ][ This chapter ][ Next chapter ] You should change your password either upon the first login, or shortly afterwards (data security is very important). If the system manager has setup your password to be 'invalidated' upon your first login, you are forced to change your password.

The password should follow the following rules:

Do NOT use names of persons, cities, objects.

If you use words (rather than random characters), use at least two.

Use at least 6 characters from 0 to 9 and a to Z.

ALWAYS use at least two numbers in the middle of your password.

NEVER write down your password in public.

If you need to write down your password somewhere at a secret place, apply some encryption (add words, numbers, etc.) and do not add your user name, the name of the computer (or its address) to make sure that accidental discovery does not hurt.

NEVER tell your password to anyone else.

Do NOT let other people work on your account.

The password can be changed as follows:

% passwd

 
old password:          (your old password)
  
new password:          (your new password)
  
re-enter new password: (new password again)

If this procedure fails, your UNIX computer may be attached to a larger network computing system which uses the 'yellow pages'. In this case, the command is:

% yppasswd

 
old password:          (your old password)
  
new password:          (your new password)
  
re-enter new password: (new password again)

SECURITY ADVICE: You should never change your password to a value communicated to you by electronic mail, telephone, or other unsecure sources. You should never reply to requests from these sources to communicate your password. Passwords are 'secret' by definition and unknown to the system manager. Only the system manager is privileged and authorised to override your password protection in special cases (e.g., to make a backup of user data). Requests to set your password to a given value are a hint to a possible hostile intrusion attempt and should be made known to the system manager immediately.

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