54

I receive this message when trying to change my password:

"Bad: new and old password are too similar"

The passwords' "similarity" is irrelevant for my needs, so I'd like to bypass this.

I tried sudo passwd $my_username

I thought this had worked because I got a message:

passwd: password updated successfully

However, the password change has no effect after leaving the terminal, and my old password is still the only one recognized.

Any ideas?

thanks

10
  • The result shows that your password has been updated sucessfully. Just logout and login back to confirm.
    – karthick87
    May 21, 2011 at 14:10
  • I've logged out and back in, and rebooted my machine. No effect - the old password remains.
    – user999
    May 21, 2011 at 14:14
  • 1
    What version of ubuntu you are using? Try changing the user password using GUI method.
    – karthick87
    May 21, 2011 at 14:18
  • Thanks for your help. Using 11.04. Unfortunately, the GUI method doesn't allow a 'similar' password. If what I've done above is seemingly correct, then I'll just need to choose a different type of password. I'm just surprised the sudo method isn't working for me.
    – user999
    May 21, 2011 at 14:30
  • 1
    @user999 I can even change my password without it nagging about it being too short (used 1 letter to test ;)) or it being the same as used before or even being the same password as it already is.
    – Rinzwind
    May 21, 2011 at 14:52

4 Answers 4

62

For me I was able to avoid this message:

Bad: new password is just a wrapped version of the old one (and a few other similar messages)

by running $sudo passwd <my_username> instead of just $ passwd

Just obviously be aware of the security implications but at least it allows it now.

1
  • Damn, this doesn't work (anymore? Ubuntu 20) Oct 29, 2021 at 2:54
23

A workaround would be to change the old password to a random one, and change it again to a similar one. The password history is not preserved, so this should work fine.

If you need a real solution, please include the contents of your /etc/pam.d/common-password and /etc/pam.d/chpasswd (preferably using a pastebin).

2
  • If using the workaround, remember that there are other limitations to be aware of in more recent versions of Ubuntu. "New password is too simple" and "You must choose a longer password" are just two.
    – Kelly Bang
    Feb 26, 2017 at 6:23
  • 1
    also, note that some systems are configured to not let you change the password more than once a day, in order to avoid exactly this (stupid corporate rules). So make sure you save that temporary password well Dec 19, 2019 at 13:55
3

sudo chage -l username

  • Use this command to view your current password expiration policies.

sudo chage username

  • Use this to get change the different password expiration policy fields; set Minimum Password Age to 0 and set Maximum Password Age to 99999 to keep your current password indefinitely and don't want it to expire.

More info: Ubuntu Server Guide - Ubuntu User Management: Password Expiration

1

https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/user-management.html doesn't seem to list the relevant options - it mentions /etc/pam.d/common-password but without details of what precisely is meant by rule-sets like nullok_secure or what other rule-sets are available.

Mentioning a document like man pam_unix might be useful here?

1
  • 4
    Hi OJW! Your post doesn't seem to attempt to answer the question. Did you mean this as a comment to 13east's answer?
    – Alaa Ali
    Aug 20, 2013 at 12:33

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .