Summary: How to change a password for SUN LDAP server users with a convenient script.
Date: Around 2012
Refactor: 29 April 2025: Checked links and formatting.

For the convenience of client support a script has been created to easily change the password of users. Simply follow these steps to change the password of an user:

1. Log on to solarisbox as clsupport
2. The change password script is automatically started
3. Fill in the username of the user you need to change the password for
4. The new password is shown, email the user the new password.

Note: Never tell the user the password, always email it to prevent “social password hacking”

Because of the password policy it's not allowed to change the password to a password that has been used before. Which means, with the script you can't reset the password twice on one day. The solution is to contact a Sysadmin who can

1. Kick the script with the new password as commandline option
   1. root@solarisbox:# /home/clsupport/bin/chpasswd TESTww11

Note that the script has to be run as root or might get error messages regarding access of the .prd file (where the password is located for the simple bind).

#!/usr/bin/bash
# Generate a password
 
if [ "$1" ]
then
        NPWD="$1"
else
        NPWD=$(date +%a%d%h)
fi
 
clear
 
cd bin
 
tput bold
tput smul
echo "<company> Client Support Change User Password"
tput rmul
tput rmso
echo
echo -n "Username: "
read USERNAME
FULLNAME=$(getent passwd $USERNAME | cut -d: -f5)
 
if [ ! "$FULLNAME" ]
then
        echo "User \"$USERNAME\" unknown"
        exit
else
        echo "dn: uid=$USERNAME,ou=people,dc=prd,dc=domain" >/tmp/newpwd.ldif
        echo "changetype: modify" >>/tmp/newpwd.ldif
        echo "replace: userPassword" >>/tmp/newpwd.ldif
        echo "userPassword: $NPWD" >>/tmp/newpwd.ldif
        echo "Changing password for \"$FULLNAME\""
        echo
        ldapmodify -h ldaphgost02 -f /tmp/newpwd.ldif -D "cn=Directory Manager" -j .pwd >/dev/null
        rm /tmp/newpwd.ldif
fi
 
echo
echo "Password is reset to $NPWD"
echo "Finished, press <Enter> to exit"
echo
read dummy
exit