Unix_chkpwd[21]: password check failed for user (test)

Ask Fedora
1

I am trying to add test user with sudo in fresh Fedora container, and get this error. What is going on here?

# adduser test -p 12345678 -G wheel
# sudo -u test sudo echo Hello

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

    #1) Respect the privacy of others.
    #2) Think before you type.
    #3) With great power comes great responsibility.

For security reasons, the password you type will not be visible.

[sudo] password for test: 
unix_chkpwd[21]: password check failed for user (test)
Sorry, try again.
2

# passwd -S test for account status.

  • L - Locked
  • NP - No password set
  • P - Password set and active

Did you try:

  • sudo adduser test
  • sudo passwd test
  • sudo usermod -aG wheel test
    ?

I think -p option of adduser command expects a hashed password, so you could do:

PASSWORD_HASH=$(openssl passwd -6 12345678)
sudo adduser test -p "$PASSWORD_HASH" -G wheel
1 Like
3

status shows P, so should be ok.

# passwd --status test
test P 2024-12-16 0 99999 7 -1

adduser -p indeed expects hash of the password.

The encrypted password, as returned by crypt(3).

Installing openssl to get the password hash seems like an overkill to me.

4

This oneliner works.

adduser test -G wheel && echo 12345678 | passwd test --stdin

But it gives weird error message.

/usr/share/cracklib/pw_dict.pwd.gz: No such file or directory
BAD PASSWORD: The password fails the dictionary check - error loading dictionary

Not ideal, but at least sudo works.

# sudo -u test sudo echo Hello
[sudo] password for test: 
Hello