[TriLUG] password has been used

[Jon Carnes]

On Thu, 2004-04-15 at 11:12, Ralph Blach wrote:
> have a redhat 9 system using pam and md5 password authentificaiton.
> 
> By had password expiration set and the password expired.  Now when I try 
> to set the password back to the original password I get the message that 
> the password has been used.  How do I change pam so that it will accept
> the old password.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Chip

In the past you had to modify some of the fields in /etc/shadow
  man shadow
     struct spwd {
                 char *sp_namp; /* user login name */
                 char *sp_pwdp; /* encrypted password */
                 long sp_lstchg; /* last password change */
                 int  sp_min; /* days until change allowed. */
                 int  sp_max; /* days before change required */
                 int  sp_warn; /* days warning for expiration */
                 int  sp_inact; /* days before account inactive */
                 int  sp_expire; /* date when account expires */
                 int  sp_flag; /* reserved for future use */
                 }

You might try rising to root and then copying over someone elses entry
in the shadow file into your entry (just copy and change the name), then
reset your password. 

Alternately, just reset the password a few times then set it back to the
one you want.

Good luck - Jon Carnes