Backtalk Administration Guide:

Changing Passwords

Version 1.0.9

© 1996-1999 Jan Wolter, Steve Weiss

If your Backtalk system is set up so that users use use real Unix login ids to log into Backtalk, then you won't be able to change their passwords with Backtalk. You should use the Unix ``passwd'' command instead.

However, if you system is set up to only use Backtalk accounts, then system administrators can change the passwords on other user's Backtalk accounts using either the Pistachio Web interface or the btpasswd command. Just follow the following steps. (The checkboxes below perform no function - they are just for your convenience.)

Changing Passwords by using the Pistachio Interface

  1. Log into Pistachio under the administration account

    There is one Backtalk account, usually called ``cfadm'' which has administrative powers. It functions as a fairwitness on in all conferences and can edit and delete all user accounts.

    To log into the cfadm account you can use the usual Backtalk login procedure used for any other account. However, most web browsers don't let you log off without exiting the browser, so if you are already logged in as a normal user, it can be inconvenient to change over to the cfadm account to do some administrative work.

    If Backtalk has been installed normally on your system, there is a simple work-around for this. Goto the Pistachio Entrance page. The URL displayed by your browser will be something like this:

       http://your.host.name/cgi-bin/pw/bt/pistachio/begin
    
    Edit this URL, changing the word ``pw'' to ``adm'', so the URL looks like this:
       http://your.host.name/cgi-bin/adm/bt/pistachio/begin
    
    Load this page. It should pop up a login box. Log in as ``cfadm'' and you should be back to the same Pistachio entrance page, but now you are logged in as the administrator. Bookmarking this page as your conference administration page is a good idea.

    Note that this trick simply runs a different copy of the same Backtalk program. The two programs aren't really different in anyway, except that having two makes it possible to be logged in to two different Backtalk accounts at once. It's only a convention to use the one with "adm" in the URL for administrative work.

    If at some point while doing adminstrative work, your administrative powers seem to suddenly disappear, check the URL to make sure that you are still running the "adm" program and haven't wandered back to the "pw" program, where you are just a regular user. And when you are done with your administrative work, make sure you get back to the "pw" side. (We should probably do more to make the pages look different when you are an administrator.)


  2. Look up the user

    Once you have logged on as an administrator, you are ready to go change your user's password. To do this, you need to go to the user's Personal Info page. The easiest way to do this is to hit the "Search for a User" button on the entrance page, type some portion of the user's name into the text box that then appears, click "Do Scan", and then click on the login name of the user you want.

    This will bring up the user's Personal Info page. Note that because you are the adminstrator, the page offers you all the editing options that it normally only offers to the users themselves. Among these, is the "Change Password" button at the bottom of the page.


  3. Change the password

    So all we have to do once on the page is hit the change password button on the bottom of the page.

    You will be asked to enter the new password twice. Hit the change password button, and it will be done.

    If there is no change password button at the bottom of the screen, but there is a validate button there, then that is because Backtalk currently can't change the password of invalidated or unvalidated users. Validate them first.

    If there are no buttons at the bottom of the screen, then you probably aren't logged into the administrator account.


Changing Passwords by using btpasswd from Unix

  1. Log into the Unix conference administration account

    This is the account that owns all the conference files, user database files, and Backtalk itself.


  2. Run the btpasswd command

    If you want to change the password for the user "agent86" then issue the following command:

        btpasswd agent86
    
    It will ask you to enter the new password twice. It will not ask you to enter the old password.