CentOS 7 default root password

[11_11]

Hey guys...
I just locked the root user with -L option then i logout from the user root!!!
Now I can't switch to root user!!!
Which requires a password! But I don't know the password for root .
What will I do?

[lightman47]

?

[slave]

I've had success myself in regards to recovering (resetting) the root password - if you can access the boot menu at start-up. There are a couple of excellent short how to's out there if you search on it

[TrevorH]

You locked the user so this bit of the man page applies:

-L, --lock
Lock a user's password. This puts a '!' in front of the encrypted password, effectively disabling the password. You
can't use this option with -p or -U.

If you added your own user to the group wheel, either manually or by checking the box to make yourself an administrator during the install, then you can run sudo su - as yourself and give it your own password when prompted. That will take you to a root command prompt where you can undo what you did.

[hunter86_bg]

Recover your root password:
1. Reboot
2. Edit grub menu (press 'e') and on the line with kernel parameters append 'rd.break enforcing=0'
To boot use (Ctrl + x)
3. Once you get a shell prompt, remount your root (I think it was /sysroot, but check with 'mount' command)

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mount -o remount,rw /sysroot

4. Chroot to your root partition:

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chroot /sysroot

5. Change your password, unlock your root user, etc

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passwd ; cat /etc/shadow

If the password field starts with '!' . Then, you need to use usermod to unlock it. Direct editing of /etc/shadow is not recommended
6.Exit chroot

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exit

7. Resume boot process

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exit

8. Login as root
9. Restore SELINUX context of modified files:

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restorecon -RFvv /etc/shadow
restore on -RFvv /etc/passwd

Repeat for any modified file
10. Set SELINUX to enforcing (depends on /etc/sysconfig/selinux settings-> if it's in permissive, leave it be)

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setenforce 1 && getenforce