passwd (change password) in Linux CLI - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Change User Password Using passwd Command

📖 Scenario: You are a system administrator who needs to update a user's password on a Linux system. You will practice using the passwd command to change the password for a specific user.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to change a user's password using the passwd command in Linux CLI by specifying the username and setting a new password.

📋 What You'll Learn

Use the passwd command to change a user's password

Specify the username whose password you want to change

Set a new password for the user

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

System administrators often need to update user passwords quickly and securely using scripts.

💼 Career

Knowing how to automate password changes is useful for managing multiple users in Linux server environments.

1

Identify the user to change password for

Create a variable called username and set it to the exact string student1 to represent the user whose password you want to change.

Linux CLI

# Create a variable called username and set it to 'student1'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use simple assignment like username='student1'.

2

Prepare the new password variable

Create a variable called new_password and set it to the exact string SecurePass123 which will be the new password for the user.

Linux CLI

username='student1'
# Create a variable called new_password and set it to 'SecurePass123'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign the password string exactly as shown.

3

Use passwd command to change the password

Write a command using echo and passwd to change the password for the user stored in username. Use the syntax echo -e "new_password\nnew_password" | passwd username --stdin to set the password non-interactively.

Linux CLI

username='student1'
new_password='SecurePass123'
# Use echo and passwd command to change password for username
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo -e "$new_password\n$new_password" | passwd $username --stdin to change password.

4

Display confirmation message

Write a echo command to print the exact message Password changed successfully for user student1 to confirm the password change.

Linux CLI

username='student1'
new_password='SecurePass123'
echo -e "$new_password\n$new_password" | passwd $username --stdin
# Print confirmation message
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo "Password changed successfully for user student1" to print the message.