# Recover lost passwords

RPort 0.9.12 has introduced a command line interface to set password of existing users.

Log in via SSH to your RPort server. Switch to the rport user account by executing `su - rport -s /bin/bash`. 🙅‍♂️ Do not perform the next steps from the root user account!

To change a password of a user, execute:

```
rportd user change -u <USERNAME> -p -c /etc/rport/rportd.conf
```

You will be asked interactively for the new password.

### RPort 0.9.5 and older

#### Step 1 – log in via SSH

To reset a lost password, login to your RPort server via SSH and become the root user. If you have installed the RPort server with the cloud-installer script, a sqlite3 database is used for authentication.

If you are not sure what is the underlying storage for users and passwords, open the configuration file with a page, for example, `less /etc/rport/rportd.conf` and scroll down to the `[api]` section.

<img src="https://1142160776-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MekeI9EovpQqbUTQSdM%2F-MfmvlNikoOMXX3bdErt%2F-MfqX39P5_Vw9zgLLDFu%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=a6dae10d-c86e-4a74-8a6a-871d65a1a0e6" alt="Check where users and passwords are stored" width="100%">

**Step 2 – create a new hash**

If you are using a static pair of username and password – option number 1 in the above screenshot – just change it and restart the rport server.

If users and passwords are stored in a json-file or in a database, all passwords are stored as brypt hashes. Create a new hash and store it in the variable `PASSWD_HASH`.

```
NEW_PASSWD="<TYPE_IN_HERE>"
PASSWD_HASH=$(htpasswd -nbB password $NEW_PASSWD|cut -d: -f2)
```

<img src="https://1142160776-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MekeI9EovpQqbUTQSdM%2F-MfmvlNikoOMXX3bdErt%2F-MfqYjmTK42ALuaMrtKD%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=dd4eaa46-8100-4c61-b9ee-ae26bc60261b" alt="Create a password hash" width="100%">

**Step 3 – update the password**

**On a json file**

If you are using a json file, open it with a text editor, go to the line of the user you want the password to be updates, and replace the password hash by the one previously created.

Restart the rport server using `systemctl restart rport` and you are done.

**On a sqlite database**

```
DB_FILE=/var/lib/rport/user-auth.db
cat <<EOF|sqlite3 $DB_FILE
.headers ON
SELECT * FROM users;
EOF
```

Update the password hash of a user

```
DB_FILE=/var/lib/rport/user-auth.db
cat <<EOF|sqlite3 $DB_FILE
UPDATE users SET password="$PASSWD_HASH" WHERE username="admin";
EOF
```

This will update the password of the user `admin` with the previously created hash. 💪 **You are done.** You don't need to restart the rport server.


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