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I am using Ubuntu 14.04.

I want to change the password of the root account. I tried the following procedure:

  • Login with my own account (that has the sudo permission)
  • sudo su root
  • passwd
    • Enter the new password twice.
    • I confirmed it said passwd: password updated successfully
  • exit
  • Trying to login root account with the new password via SSH --> FAIL!

Why passwd command does not work here?

Byte Commander
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syko
  • 119

1 Answers1

3

In order to log in with a password to the root account over SSH, as well as setting the root password you need to set

PermitRootLogin yes

in the remote system's /etc/ssh/sshd_config file.

NOTE: this is not recommended because it opens the root account to brute-force attack: if you need to log in to the root account directly over SSH (instead of logging in with a non-root account, and then using sudo), it is preferable to set up key-based authentication and set PermitRootLogin without-password instead.

steeldriver
  • 142,475