Step 3: Change the root Password#

The default root password often comes in an email or is displayed in the configuration settings of your VPS provider. In other words, neither option is secure. Changing a password is simple!

Warning

Record your new password someplace safe. Losing your root password requires you to reset it using your VPS login panel.

  1. Choose a new password.

    • My favorite method is to choose a Fort Knox Password or CodeIgniter Encryption Key from RandomKeygen.

  2. Use command passwd [user].

    • Or, use passwd to change the password of the logged in user.

root@vps298933:~# passwd
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
root@vps298933:~#

Danger

Do not use a common password, such as: password, root, 123456, qwerty, letmein

Yes, one my students used one of these passwords and the VPS was hacked. 😆 The VPS hosting company banned the VPS for abuse because the hacker was using it for illegal activity.

Source & license

Reproduced verbatim, without modification from © 2022, BilimEdtech Labs, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Source page: https://labs.bilimedtech.com/cloud-computing/8/8.3.html

See LICENSE for the full license text.