Changing Your Password

In cells that use an AFS-modified login utility, the password is the same for both logging in and authenticating with AFS. In this case, you use a single command, kpasswd, to change the password.

If your machine does not use an AFS-modified login utility, there are separate passwords for logging into the local file system and authenticating with AFS. (The two passwords can be the same or different, at your discretion.) In this case, use the kpasswd command to change your AFS password and the UNIX passwd command to change your UNIX password.

Your system administrator can improve cell security by configuring several features that guide your choice of password. Keep them in mind when you issue the kpasswd command:

To Display Password Expiration Date and Reuse Policy

Issue the kas examine command to display your password expiration date and reuse policy. You can examine only your own account. The third line of the output reports your password's expiration date. The last line reports the password reuse policy that applies to you.

   % kas examine your_username
   Password for your_username: your_AFS_password

The following example displays the output for the user pat.

   User data for pat
    key (15) cksum is 3414844392,  last cpw: Thu Oct 21 16:05:44 1999
    password will expire:  Fri Nov 26 20:44:36 1999
    9 consecutive unsuccessful authentications are permitted.
    The lock time for this user is 25.5 minutes.
    User is not locked.
    entry never expires. Max ticket lifetime 100.00 hours.
    last mod on Wed Aug 18 08:22:29 1999 by admin
    don't permit password reuse

To Change Your AFS Password

Issue the kpasswd command, which prompts you to provide your old and new passwords and to confirm the new password. The passwords do not echo visibly on the screen.

   % kpasswd
   Old password: current_password
   New password (RETURN to abort): new_password
   Retype new password: new_password

To Change Your UNIX Password

Issue the UNIX passwd command, which prompts you to provide your old and new passwords and to confirm the new password. The passwords do not echo visibly on the screen. On many machines, the passwd resides in the /bin directory, and you possibly need to type the complete pathname.

   % passwd
   Changing password for username.
   Old password: current_password
   New password: new_password
   Retype new passwd: new_password