CHANGE YOUR ROOT PASSWORD!
I thought I'd share this with everybody here, since I stil do not see any update on how to do it after having a broken password program ever since we install the BSD Subsystem 2.x, well I've been using this method since the first time I got my 16GB iPhone (1.1.3 OOTB). It works with iPod as well.
If you don't want to be bothered by all the technical details, there is a very easy solution in part C and D for the easiest solution.
So, here we go:
A. Prologue
Basically password structure in iPhone/iPod is a UNIX password with the crypt or DES algorithm. Crypt requires you to supply salt key (
2 characters) and text password (
8 characters), which will then yield 11 characters password.
If you like to take a look at what
alpine is represented in your iPhone or iPod, check the content of your /etc/mater.passwd:
# grep "^root" /etc/master.passwd
and we'll see:
root:/smx7MYTQIi2M:0:0::0:0:System Administrator:/var/root:/bin/sh
You'll see the bold characters, and that's the encrypted root's password with
/s as the salt key.
Now, it's a matter of finding the right tools to change this, lucky for Mac and Unix users, since crypt is a already present there.
So, this is an example of how Mac can benefit from this, use the command bellow to generate the exact same code for alpine (for the purpose of testing):
Code:
openssl passwd -crypt -salt /s alpine
and this will result the same encrypted 'alpine' (/smx7MYTQIi2M)
BTW, the /usr/bin/passwd that comes with BSD is broken in the way that it tries to update the /etc/passwd instead of /etc/master.passwd, while actually /etc/passwd itsef is just a list of user and needed to be there for the compatibility with BSD 4.3.
I just don't understand why BSD Subsystem comes with this broken passwd program.
B. Time to change the password (the not so easy way)!
As mentioned in part A, there are two files that need to be put under attention (
etc/passwd dan /etc/master.passwd)
File /etc/passwd (owner root:wheel, mode 0644) contains list of user and it's home directory as well as the default shell, here's the standard content:
Code:
##
# User Database
#
# Note that this file is consulted when the system is running in single-user
# mode. At other times this information is handled by one or more of:
# lookupd DirectoryServices
# By default, lookupd gets information from NetInfo, so this file will
# not be consulted unless you have changed lookupd's configuration.
# This file is used while in single user mode.
#
# To use this file for normal authentication, you may enable it with
# /Applications/Utilities/Directory Access.
##
nobody:*:-2:-2:Unprivileged User:/:/usr/bin/false
root:*:0:0:System Administrator:/var/root:/bin/sh
mobile:*:501:501:Mobile User:/var/mobile:/bin/sh
daemon:*:1:1:System Services:/var/root:/usr/bin/false
unknown:*:99:99:Unknown User:/var/empty:/usr/bin/false
_securityd:*:64:64::0:0:securityd:/var/empty:/usr/bin/false
While /etc/master.passwd (owner root:wheel, mode 0600) contains user and it's password
Code:
##
# User Database
#
# Note that this file is consulted when the system is running in single-user
# mode. At other times this information is handled by lookupd. By default,
# lookupd gets information from NetInfo, so this file will not be consulted
# unless you have changed lookupd's configuration.
##
nobody:*:-2:-2::0:0:Unprivileged User:/var/empty:/usr/bin/false
root:/smx7MYTQIi2M:0:0::0:0:System Administrator:/var/root:/bin/sh
mobile:/smx7MYTQIi2M:501:501::0:0:Mobile User:/var/mobile:/bin/sh
daemon:*:1:1::0:0:System Services:/var/root:/usr/bin/false
unknown:*:99:99::0:0:Unknown User:/var/empty:/usr/bin/false
_securityd:*:64:64::0:0:securityd:/var/empty:/usr/bin/false
Notice that root and mobile has the same password, don't worry we just need to change the root's password.
Just for example we need to change the password into
goldsand, so the password (assuming we are still using the same saltkey which is
/s):
then issue this:
Code:
openssl passwd -crypt -salt "/s" goldsand
and result will be
/sFmD69oBR.io
Now you need to replace this line (in /etc/master.passwd)
from
Code:
root:/smx7MYTQIi2M:0:0::0:0:System Administrator:/var/root:/bin/sh
into
Code:
root:/sFmD69oBR.io:0:0::0:0:System Administrator:/var/root:/bin/sh
If you know how to use vi then it's an easy update through SSH, but if you're not, then I'd suggest to copy /etc/master.passwd into your local pc/mac using sftp or winscp, edit the line above and copy back to /etc/master.passwd in your iPhone/iPod
Check the password by logging in through vt100, and see that your old password is changed!
DONE!
** WARNING: Use this carefully, do not miss the steps, or you' ll be faced with the famous ring of death that will require you to restore your iPod or iPhone (you've been warned!)
C. Time to change the password (the easy way)!
The updated
passwd program here is extracted from Cydia Packager (from Saurik, check
http://www.saurik.com/id/1), while I don't use Cydia itself since I still find default Installer more useful... at least until now.
Let me know Saurik! If you don't want me to post this, I'll have this removed. Just want to share with the community.
I put the passwd program here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/97775371/kpasswd.zip
Code:
password: ketanitem
Detail instruction can be found there.
But for you the impatience, I'll copy it here:
To copy, you can either use winscp (windows) or sftp (Mac), I will only address sftp here, but winscp users will get the idea.
# sftp root@[ip_address_of_iphone_ipod]
sftp> cd /usr/bin
sftp> put passwd
Login through vt100 app in your iPhone/iPod or do ssh/putty to the ip address of you iPhone/iPod and go into the /usr/bin/ directory
# cd /usr/bin
# ls -al passwd
Make sure the ownership is root and group is wheel, if it's not that, issue this command:
# chown root:wheel passwd
Also make sure the file mode is -rwx-r-x-r-x, if it's not there just issue this:
# chmod 755 passwd
To change password, just execute this through your vt100 or ssh session:
# passwd root
D. Use Installer source (easiest way!!)
Just add to your installer source:
http://ketanitem2000.googlepages.com/repo.xml
ENJOY!!
HOWTO: Change 'alpine' (root's password for 1.1.3/1.1.4) -Now with Installer (repo)
