Question & Answer
Question
A user receives the errors below when changing a password:
3004-622 An error occurred updating the password database.
3004-709 Error changing password for
Cause
This may indicate corruption with the password history file and not allow users or system admins to change passwords for accounts.
Answer
Overview:
The pwdhist File Purpose is to maintain password history information.
Description:
The /etc/security/pwdhist.dir and /etc/security/pwdhist.pag files are database files created and maintained by Database Manager (DBM) subroutines. The files maintain a list of previous user passwords.
Resolving the password history corruption problem:
Backup password history files:
cd to /etc/security
cp pwdhist.dir pwdhist.dir.bak
cp pwdhist.pag pwdhist.pag.bak
Zero-out the two original files:
> pwdhist.dir
> pwdhist.pag
Attempt to change the user password:
passwd <UserName>
This will allow a change to the users password, however does not log any information to the history files (they will still be zero bytes until a password change is done again).
References:
The pwdhist file: http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_aix_72/com.ibm.aix.files/aixfiles312.htm
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Document Information
Modified date:
17 June 2018
UID
isg3T1011273