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(https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/ask) Ask Question     (2016-09-24 19:46:36Z) Asked 9 years ago  Modified (https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/312113/how-do-i-view-my-current-user-password-in-bash?lastactivity) (2024-03-22 18:02:14Z) 1 year, 6 months ago  (Viewed 418,976 times) Viewed 419k times       This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear 29  (This question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful)         Save this question. (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312113/timeline)    Show activity on this post.   I'm currently installing Bash on Ubuntu on Windows. I installed Bash and set up the user on normally. Everything worked fine, but I didn't want to keep doing sudo with every command. I uninstalled then reinstalled 'Bash on Ubuntu on Wwindows' with lxrun /install /y   It saved the username, but not the previous password. I'm trying to view the current password for the user that I am using.  How do I view the password to my user in Bash?  (https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/linux) (show questions tagged 'linux') linux  (https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/bash) (show questions tagged 'bash') bash  (https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/password) (show questions tagged 'password') password      (https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/312113) (Short permalink to this question) Share   (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312113/edit) Improve this question  Follow  Follow this question to receive notifications      (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312113/revisions) (show all edits to this post) edited (2016-09-24 19:59:39Z) Sep 24, 2016 at 19:59      user147505     asked (2016-09-24 19:46:36Z) Sep 24, 2016 at 19:46   (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/191691/joseph-palacio) (Joseph Palacio's user avatar)    (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/191691/joseph-palacio) Joseph Palacio Joseph Palacio (reputation score) 391 (1 gold badge)  1  1 gold badge (3 silver badges)  3  3 silver badges (4 bronze badges)  4  4 bronze badges        3   I don't know if you can view the password. You can run sudo passwd yourusername to change it. If you don't have sudo access, you can run as root with lxrun /setdefaultuser root  Mark Plotnick – (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/49439/mark-plotnick) (26,003 reputation) Mark Plotnick  2016-09-24 20:07:21 +00:00 Commented (2016-09-24 20:07:21Z, License: CC BY-SA 3.0) Sep 24, 2016 at 20:07   (this comment was edited 2 times)        (number of 'useful comment' votes received) 1   You can't view your password, but why would you want to do that? What are you actually trying to accomplish? If you want to configure sudo not to ask for a password, that's a different matter, it doesn't require storing any password anywhere, you just configure it not to ask for the password. If that's something specific to Linux-on-Windows then it's probably something similar but I wouldn't know. Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' – (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/885/gilles-so-stop-being-evil) (864,432 reputation) Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'  2016-09-24 20:45:28 +00:00 Commented (2016-09-24 20:45:28Z, License: CC BY-SA 3.0) Sep 24, 2016 at 20:45      (number of 'useful comment' votes received) 1   Why do you think you need to use sudo with every command? Kusalananda – (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/116858/kusalananda) (355,341 reputation) Kusalananda (Moderator) ♦  2024-03-22 18:41:22 +00:00 Commented (2024-03-22 18:41:22Z, License: CC BY-SA 4.0) Mar 22, 2024 at 18:41        (Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. Avoid answering questions in comments.) Add a comment  |  (Expand to show all comments on this post)       3 Answers 3   Sorted by:  (https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/312113/how-do-i-view-my-current-user-password-in-bash?answertab=scoredesc#tab-top) Reset to default   (scoredesc) Highest score (default)  (modifieddesc) Date modified (newest first)  (createdasc) Date created (oldest first)            This answer is useful 41  (This answer is not useful)         Save this answer. (Loading when this answer was accepted…)  (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312144/timeline)    Show activity on this post.   You can't actually, your password is hashed and is only a 1-way decoded. To summarize it, just imagine each time you try to login, it will do something like  if hash ('password' ) == currentHash; do grantAccess();   and each time you save a password, will do hashedPass = hash ('password' );
writeOnShadowFile('hashedPass' )   This is by security standards of hashing avoid storing a real password, but instead storing the result of a function, and evaluating it on that way. Hashing functions are intended to do lot of the original value conversion with data loss, and due the data loss it will make almost impossible to know your original password. You can easily change your password with usermod -p <password> <user> , or just passwd <user> .   (https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/312144) (Short permalink to this answer) Share   (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312144/edit) Improve this answer  Follow  Follow this answer to receive notifications      (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312144/revisions) (show all edits to this post) edited (2020-04-20 06:41:57Z) Apr 20, 2020 at 6:41    (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/135356/colidyre) (colidyre's user avatar)    (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/135356/colidyre) colidyre (reputation score) 193 (10 bronze badges)  10  10 bronze badges     answered (2016-09-24 22:06:14Z) Sep 24, 2016 at 22:06   (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/83053/waltercool) (WalterCool's user avatar)    (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/83053/waltercool) WalterCool WalterCool (reputation score) 551 (4 silver badges)  4  4 silver badges (6 bronze badges)  6  6 bronze badges        0  (Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. Avoid comments like “+1” or “thanks”.) Add a comment  |  (Expand to show all comments on this post)           This answer is useful 14  (This answer is not useful)         Save this answer. (Loading when this answer was accepted…)  (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312116/timeline)    Show activity on this post.   It's not possible to see what the OS user passwords are. The passwords are stored in a (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_function) hashed form. You can only check if you know one right. Not only would that be a security threat, but also passwords should be changed regularly. And the new one shouldn't be too similar to the old one. But in home environment (as opposed to a professional one) you shouldn't be bothered with this by your command line.   (https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/312116) (Short permalink to this answer) Share   (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312116/edit) Improve this answer  Follow  Follow this answer to receive notifications      (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312116/revisions) (show all edits to this post) edited (2016-09-24 21:58:33Z) Sep 24, 2016 at 21:58         answered (2016-09-24 19:57:47Z) Sep 24, 2016 at 19:57     user147505user147505          (Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. Avoid comments like “+1” or “thanks”.) Add a comment  |  (Expand to show all comments on this post)          This answer is useful 11  (This answer is not useful)         Save this answer. (Loading when this answer was accepted…)  (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312117/timeline)    Show activity on this post.   You can't! For good reasons. It would be a huge security flaw.
You can change the password with the passwd command (see man passwd ). If you are root you can change passwords for all users.   (https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/312117) (Short permalink to this answer) Share   (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312117/edit) Improve this answer  Follow  Follow this answer to receive notifications      (https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/312117/revisions) (show all edits to this post) edited (2024-03-22 17:47:57Z) Mar 22, 2024 at 17:47    (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/117549/jeff-schaller) (Jeff Schaller's user avatar)    (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/117549/jeff-schaller) Jeff Schaller (Moderator) ♦ (reputation score 68,771) 68.8k (35 gold badges)  35  35 gold badges (122 silver badges)  122  122 silver badges (263 bronze badges)  263  263 bronze badges     answered (2016-09-24 19:59:24Z) Sep 24, 2016 at 19:59     anonanon        0  (Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. 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