topic Re: vCSA 6.x Reusing password "BAD PASSWORD" in vCenter™ Server Discussions

vCSA 6.x Reusing password "BAD PASSWORD"

Gr4cchus — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 01:57:42 GMT

When trying to update vCSA through appliance management on port 5480 the update failed as it said the password had expired. This is a lab environment so is it possible to reuse the same password. Although I have done other things so far, running passwd as root user in the shell results in this when trying to reuse the old password:

This article didnt seem to help either www.boche.net/blog/2011/06/27/forc-a-simple-vmware-vma-password/

Re: vCSA 6.x Reusing password "BAD PASSWORD"

asajm — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 07:15:45 GMT

Hi @Gr4cchus

Can you check these articles maybe help

Authentication Token Manipulation Error

resetting-root-password-in-vmware-vcenter-server-appliance

Re: vCSA 6.x Reusing password "BAD PASSWORD"

Gr4cchus — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 04:50:23 GMT

Neither of these options sound like they are going to work as both have warnings in the article about the password and the dictionary it checks against. I think something was changed where somehow the password was originally grandfathered in and now im stuck trying to fight it.

Re: vCSA 6.x Reusing password "BAD PASSWORD"

Gr4cchus — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 02:08:46 GMT

Following http://vcloud-lab.com/entries/vcenter-server/resetting-root-password-in-vmware-vcenter-server-appliance where everything is mounted, as root I followed this for guidance https://askubuntu.com/questions/113682/how-to-change-disable-password-complexity-test-when-changing-password . edit /etc/pam.d/system-password . I set minlen=6 to 1 (however this is prob redundant) which failed, then I also removed the enforce_for_root which then allowed me to use the desired password. Likely some of these steps are not necessary.