Shell Programming and Scripting

Hello

Sorry for the question..

i would like to make a script for OS X that allow me to change the password for a user account.
i have to use this script on several iMac with the same user/password.
i want to store the passwords inside the script, no security problems involved.

the command is :

Code:

dscl . passwd Users/account_name

When i run the command, the terminal asks me to enter :

Code:

- New Password :
- Permission denied. Please enter user's old password:

example : new password : test
old password : test2

Code:

dscl . passwd Users/account_name
- auto enter test
- auto enter test2

thank you
and sorry for my english

The script is okay. I suppose. One way to stop the password request for the users old password is to use sudo and /etc/sudoers file. You can also enable or disable the root user from the command line, which is not the preferred method.

Documentation here:
How to enable the root user on your Mac - Apple Support <- enabling/disabling root
sudo OSX Man Page | SS64.com <- sudo starting point.

You don't tell us which version of OSX you are using so be aware of this, the csrutil command:-

Root access in OSX 10.12.2.

This originated in El-Capitan, (OSX 10.11.x).

Thanks to '[MA]Flying_Meat' for pointing it out to me.

thank you for the help

Unfortunately i cannot enable the Root Account on all the iMac.

i try to give you more details :

i have 20 iMac with 2 User Account (both Administrators).
i have to change the password for both the accounts on all the iMac

All the iMac run the latest OS X version , 10.12.x?

i would like to make a script that i can send to every iMac using Apple remote tool, and that will make me save a lot of time.

I'm a beginner user of the OS X terminal...

this is an example of what i want to do:
- 20 iMac
- users account name : Administrator & SSH
- old psw for Administrator & SSH : "AAA"
- new psw to enter for both the accounts : "BBB"

#script to change password

Code:

dscl . passwd Users/Administrator 
<<a command that can enter automatically the new password stored in the script>>
<<a command that can enter automatically the old password stored in the script>>

dscl . passwd Users/SSH
<<a command that can enter automatically the new password stored in the script>>
<<a command that can enter automatically the old password stored in the script>>

thank you for any help

Moderator's Comments:

Please use CODE tags as required by forum rules!

This sort of operation is intentionally blocked in OSX and most UNIX in general. UNIX logins and login-related tools (and even remote tools, like ssh) accept passwords typed by a human being in realtime - not from files, scripts, variables, commandline options, CGI, or anything else. Nothing but an interactive terminal will do.

This is to prevent people from writing scripts which automatically escalate themselves into other people's privileges or especially into root privileges. Anyone could read such a script and discover the secret to subverting your systems. This also places another barrier in the way of an attacker trying to do the same sort of thing you are.

Not even root can really avoid this, it just cuts out the middleman since it doesn't actually need to login to anything to update anyone's password entries.

You may need to rethink what you're trying to do. Some sort of privileged login should be involved, either via sudo or root itself, not brute-forcing passwords into inputs meant to be typed into. (Which you could, with the third-party expect brute-forcing tool, but that shouldn't be done on a regular basis.)

thank you for the accurate description
so basically there is not any way to avoid this problem ?
i would like to make an authomatism that allow me to make this massive task in a single click...
In your opinion , there is a way using any other workaround ?
like root account or anything else.

i've tried to make some research on the web, i've found a ssh key...
it should be a way to store a specific key (like a password) and to evoke it when needed.
Could it be used for my task ?
and if yes, what would be the code to store and evoke a key ?

i really appreciate all the help, thank you.

Did you read my post #3 or am I wasting my time?

Research these two items first:-

Gatekeeper (macOS - Wikipedia)
System Integrity Protection - Wikipedia

Apple is a tough nut to crack externally even with _root_ access.

Even when you have terminal root access you are NOT able to write to many root owned areas.

Again research those two URLs above.