Posted inInformation Technology

Fixing That Annoying Ubuntu Password Policy

seasoned_geek by seasoned_geek
Ubuntu password annoyance

We’ve all been there and the Ubuntu password policy is only getting worse. They really need to print their justification arguments on a roll of toilet paper and wipe their ass with them when they have a checkbox on the install to not require a password for login. There is no security argument you can make when you allow that. They also aren’t smart enough to disable said password policy when Guest Additions is installed and communicating with a host.

Most of us use Ubuntu in a VM for building or development. When we are setting up a VM to export for everyone else to import we need a basic password. Yes, we put some numbers and symbols in it but for devs in a VM that cannot receive an inbound Internet connection, we don’t need the password Nazi’s looking over our shoulder. We also don’t want to leave it empty. These things are only up for a few hours per day.

Pre Ubuntu 21.04

Open a terminal.

sudo jed /etc/pam.d/common-password

If you don’t have jed installed (you should!) you can use nano or any other terminal based editor.

Find this line:

line that causes the annoyance

Delete “obscure” so it now looks like this:

after you fix it

Exit and save.

Reboot.

Post Ubuntu 21.04

sudo jed /etc/pam.d/common-password

Comment out the two lines shown below and add the third.

after changes

The old standby

sudo passwd username

Still works, but is annoying in its own right.

BAD PASSWORD nag

Roland Hughes started his IT career in the early 1980s. He quickly became a consultant and president of Logikal Solutions, a software consulting firm specializing in OpenVMS application and C++/Qt touchscreen/embedded Linux development. Early in his career he became involved in what is now called cross platform development. Given the dearth of useful books on the subject he ventured into the world of professional author in 1995 writing the first of the "Zinc It!" book series for John Gordon Burke Publisher, Inc.

A decade later he released a massive (nearly 800 pages) tome "The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer" which tried to encapsulate the essential skills gained over what was nearly a 20 year career at that point. From there "The Minimum You Need to Know" book series was born.

Three years later he wrote his first novel "Infinite Exposure" which got much notice from people involved in the banking and financial security worlds. Some of the attacks predicted in that book have since come to pass. While it was not originally intended to be a trilogy, it became the first book of "The Earth That Was" trilogy:
Infinite Exposure
Lesedi - The Greatest Lie Ever Told
John Smith - Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars

When he is not consulting Roland Hughes posts about technology and sometimes politics on his blog. He also has regularly scheduled Sunday posts appearing on the Interesting Authors blog.