How VPS - How to use/setup VPS
  • Home
  • Management guides
    • Web servers software
      • Directadmin
      • Hocvps Script
      • Centmin Mod
      • CWP
      • Kloxo-MR
      • Plesk
    • Control Panels
    • Securing VPS/Servers
      • SSL Certificates
      • Upgrading
      • Authentication
  • Operating System
    • CentOS
    • Fedora
    • Debian
    • Linux
    • Arch
    • BSD
    • CoreOS
  • Reviews
  • Coupon
    • Domain Coupon
    • Hosting Coupon
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Management guides
    • Web servers software
      • Directadmin
      • Hocvps Script
      • Centmin Mod
      • CWP
      • Kloxo-MR
      • Plesk
    • Control Panels
    • Securing VPS/Servers
      • SSL Certificates
      • Upgrading
      • Authentication
  • Operating System
    • CentOS
    • Fedora
    • Debian
    • Linux
    • Arch
    • BSD
    • CoreOS
  • Reviews
  • Coupon
    • Domain Coupon
    • Hosting Coupon
No Result
View All Result
How VPS - How to use/setup VPS
No Result
View All Result
Home Operating System Linux

How to Fix “passwd: Authentication token manipulation error” in Linux

How VPS by How VPS
November 2, 2018
in Linux, Operating System
0
0
SHARES
23
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Contents

  1. 1. Reboot System
  2. 2. Set Correct PAM Module Settings
  3. 3. Remount Root Partition
  4. 4. Set Correct Permissions on Shadow File
  5. 5. Repair and Fix Filesystem Errors
  6. 6. Free Up Disk Space

In Linux, the passwd command is used to set or change user account passwords, while using this command sometimes users may encountered the error: “passwd: Authentication token manipulation error” as shown in below example.

Recently I was logging in to my CentOS server using my username “tecmint“. Once I am logged in I am trying to change my password using passwd utility, but a second after I am getting the following error messages.

# su - tecmint
$ passwd tecmint
Changing password for user tecmint
Changing password for tecmint

(current) UNIX password: 
passwd: Authentication token manipulation error 

In this article, we will explain different ways of fixing “passwd: Authentication token manipulation error” in Linux systems.

1. Reboot System

The first basic solution is to reboot your system. I can’t really tell why this worked, but it did worked for me on my CentOS 7.

$ sudo reboot 

If this fails, try out the next solutions.

2. Set Correct PAM Module Settings

Another possible cause of the “passwd: Authentication token manipulation error” is wrong PAM (Pluggable Authentication Module) settings. This makes the module unable to obtain the new authentication token entered.

The various settings for PAM are found in /etc/pam.d/.

$ ls -l /etc/pam.d/

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 142 Mar 23  2017 abrt-cli-root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 272 Mar 22  2017 atd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 192 Jan 26 07:41 chfn
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 192 Jan 26 07:41 chsh
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 232 Mar 22  2017 config-util
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 293 Aug 23  2016 crond
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 115 Nov 11  2010 eject
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  19 Apr 12  2012 fingerprint-auth -> fingerprint-auth-ac
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 659 Apr 10  2012 fingerprint-auth-ac
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 147 Oct  5  2009 halt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 728 Jan 26 07:41 login
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 172 Nov 18  2016 newrole
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 154 Mar 22  2017 other
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 146 Nov 23  2015 passwd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  16 Apr 12  2012 password-auth -> password-auth-ac
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 896 Apr 10  2012 password-auth-ac
....

For instance a mis-configured /etc/pam.d/common-password file can result into this error, running the pam-auth-update command with root privileges can fix the issue.

$ sudo pam-auth-update

3. Remount Root Partition

You might also see this error if the / partition is mounted as read only, which means no file can be modified thus a user’s password can’t be set or changed. To fix this error, you need to mount the root partition as as read/write as shown.

$ sudo mount -o remount,rw /

4. Set Correct Permissions on Shadow File

Wrong permissions on the /etc/shadow file, which stores actual passwords for user accounts in encrypted format can also cause this error. To check the permissions on this file, use the following command.

$ ls -l  /etc/shadow

To set the correct permissions on it, use the chmod command as follows.

$ sudo chmod 0640 /etc/shadow

5. Repair and Fix Filesystem Errors

Minor storage drive or filesystem errors can also cause the error in question. You can use Linux disk scanning tools such as fsck to fix such errors.

6. Free Up Disk Space

Furthermore, if your disk is full, then you can not modify any file on the disk especially when file’s size is meant to increase. This can also cause the above error. In this case, read our following articles to clean up disk space can help solve this error.

  1. Agedu – A Useful Tool for Tracking Down Wasted Disk Space in Linux
  2. BleachBit – A Free Disk Space Cleaner and Privacy Guard for Linux Systems
  3. How to Find and Remove Duplicate/Unwanted Files in Linux Using ‘FSlint’ Tool

You will also find these articles relating to managing user passwords in Linux.

  1. How to Reset Forgotten Root Password in RHEL/CentOS and Fedora
  2. How to Force User to Change Password at Next Login in Linux
  3. How to Run ‘sudo’ Command Without Entering a Password in Linux

That’s it for now! If you know any other solution to fix “passwd: Authentication token manipulation error”, let us know via the feedback form below. We will be grateful for your contribution.

Source: tecmint.com

Tags: Linux Commandslinux guidelinux vps setup guide
How VPS

How VPS

Related Posts

Failed to download metadata for repo 'appstream' on Centos 8
CentOS

How to fix error: Failed to download metadata for repo ‘appstream’ on Centos 8

February 25, 2022
How to Install Apache Tomcat 8 on CentOS 7
Linux

How to Install Apache Tomcat 8 on CentOS 7?

February 11, 2020
Install Arch Linux With Btrfs Snapshotting
Uncategorized

Install Arch Linux With Btrfs Snapshotting

February 13, 2020
Next Post

How to Download Files to Specific Directory Using Wget

How to Create and Use Alias Command in Linux

30 Useful Linux Commands for System Administrators

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow Us

  • 121 Followers
  • 87.2k Followers

Recommended

How to Install Directus 6.4 CMS on a Fedora 26 LAMP VPS

3 years ago

How To Access Your Vultr VPS

3 years ago

How to Setup an Openfire XMPP Server on CentOS 7

3 years ago

How to Add a New Disk to an Existing Linux Server

4 years ago

Instagram

    Please install/update and activate JNews Instagram plugin.

Categories

  • Arch
  • Authentication
  • Backups
  • BSD
  • Centmin Mod
  • CentOS
  • Control Panels
  • CoreOS
  • CWP
  • Debian
  • Directadmin
  • Encryption
  • Fedora
  • Firewalls
  • Hocvps Script
  • Hosting providers
  • Kloxo-MR
  • Linux
  • Mitigations
  • Operating System
  • Plesk
  • Reviews
  • Securing VPS/Servers
  • Security Patches
  • SSL Certificates
  • Uncategorized
  • Upgrading
  • VPS/Servers management guides
  • Vulnerability Detection
  • Web servers software
  • Webhosting Control Panel

Topics

Apache Web Server Bluehost Review 2019 Bluehost Review 2020 Bluehost Review 2021 Centmin Mod CentminMod centos install htop fsck htop install HTTP DoS attack Install Snort on an Ubuntu install Zabbix on CentOS install Zabbix on CentOS 7 Linux Commands linux guide linux install htop linux vps setup guide MariaDB MariaDB Error Mysql mysqld error optimize MariaDB optimize Mysql snort Ubuntu
No Result
View All Result

Highlights

Top Free Web Hosting Control Panels To Manage VPS/Dedicated Servers

Webmin Reviews

Virtualmin Reviews

CentOS Web Panel Reviews

Ajenti Reviews

ISPConfig Reviews

Trending

Failed to download metadata for repo 'appstream' on Centos 8
CentOS

How to fix error: Failed to download metadata for repo ‘appstream’ on Centos 8

by How VPS
February 25, 2022
0

I tried to update some extensions by use yum on centOs which I specified in Dockerfile. After...

How to Fix MySQL Error "Plugin 'InnoDB' registration as a STORAGE ENGINE failed"?

How to Fix MySQL Error “Plugin ‘InnoDB’ registration as a STORAGE ENGINE failed”?

November 17, 2020
How to optimize Mysql or MariaDB

How to optimize Mysql or MariaDB

November 3, 2020
Top Free Web Hosting Control Panels To Manage VPS/Dedicated Servers

Top Free Web Hosting Control Panels To Manage VPS/Dedicated Servers

February 17, 2020
Webmin Reviews

Webmin Reviews

February 17, 2020
How VPS – How to use/setup VPS

We bring you the best Premium WordPress Themes that perfect for news, magazine, personal blog, etc. Visit our landing page to see all features & demos.
LEARN MORE »

Recent News

  • How to fix error: Failed to download metadata for repo ‘appstream’ on Centos 8 February 25, 2022
  • How to Fix MySQL Error “Plugin ‘InnoDB’ registration as a STORAGE ENGINE failed”? November 17, 2020
  • How to optimize Mysql or MariaDB November 3, 2020

Categories

  • Arch
  • Authentication
  • Backups
  • BSD
  • Centmin Mod
  • CentOS
  • Control Panels
  • CoreOS
  • CWP
  • Debian
  • Directadmin
  • Encryption
  • Fedora
  • Firewalls
  • Hocvps Script
  • Hosting providers
  • Kloxo-MR
  • Linux
  • Mitigations
  • Operating System
  • Plesk
  • Reviews
  • Securing VPS/Servers
  • Security Patches
  • SSL Certificates
  • Uncategorized
  • Upgrading
  • VPS/Servers management guides
  • Vulnerability Detection
  • Web servers software
  • Webhosting Control Panel

[mc4wp_form]

© 2018 JNews - City News Magazine WordPress theme. All rights belong to their respective owners.
JNews is a top selling 2018 WordPress News, Blog, Newspaper & Magazine Theme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.