Root cannot change password

[Kirizan]

Hello all

I was trying to add a freshly built ESX server to a fresh vCenter installation for testing purposes, and I kept getting errors about authentication. I after looking at the logs on the vCenter server, I saw an error "authentication token manipulation error". I double and tripple checked that I was entereing the proper password, and after I confirmed I was using the right password I logged into the ESX server directly. While configuring the ESX server, I used the command " esxcfg-auth --usecrack=3 9 -1 -1 -1 -1" to configure the password policies. Now, when I try to change the password I get the following:

root@esx102 /]# passwd

Changing password for user root.

passwd: Authentication token manipulation error

I have verified the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files have the proper permissions. I have look around on the web, but I haven't found anything that solves the problem I'm having (most of them were talking about issues with the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow permissions). If anyone could give any help, that would be awesome, thank you in advance.

[Kirizan]

I found the answer. I had ran the security script located in these forums, and something with the /etc/pam.d/security-auth file must have changed between 3.5 and 4.0, because it completely hosed up that file. once I replaced the file with it's backup, everything works just fine.