Change Password #

The C4 cluster uses a technology called LDAP to manage Linux accounts and passwords. The maximum age for a password is 365 days. When your password is within 30 days of expiring, you will start to receive system generated emails warning you to change the password.

Password complexity rules #

Passwords are subject to the following complexity rules:

• At least eight (8) total characters
• At least three of the following four categories:
  • Lowercase letters (a b … z)
  • Uppercase letters (A B … Z)
  • Digits (0 1 … 9)
  • Special characters (@ # $ & % ^ * _ - + = | \ / ( ) { } < > “ ‘ ` : ; , . ! ?)
• You cannot update to a password that you already used in the past

Update password #

If you can log in to C4, then you can change your credentials by calling passwd from one of the login nodes, e.g.

[alice@c4-log1 ~]$ passwd
Changing password for user alice.
Current Password:
New password: 
Retype new password: 
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
[alice@c4-log1 ~]$ 

If you get an error saying “Password change failed. Server message: Old password not accepted. passwd: Authentication token manipulation error” when you enter your current password, then your password has already expired. If so, you need to request a password reset.

Verify password #

To test your C4 credentials, try to log in to C4 via SSH. If you have SSH keys set up, you can force SSH to ignore those and only accept password entries by using:

{local}$ ssh -o PreferredAuthentications=password alice@c4-log1.ucsf.edu

Reset password #

To reset your C4 password, for instance if you forgot your password or your password expired, contact your friendly neighborhood sysadmin at daryl.styrk@ucsf.edu.