yppasswd prompts the root password, when a user tries to change the password of another user.

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Issue

  • I want a normal user to be able to change the password of another user with yppasswd, but it always prompts the root password.
  • Even using the sudo command, it prompts the root password before changing it.

Resolution

It is not possible.
yppasswd command always prompts the root password in advance, even when the root user tries to change the password of a normal user.

Diagnostic Steps

Related code in yp-tools package.

In src/yppasswd.c,

  fprintf (stdout, _("Changing NIS account information for %s on %s.\n"),
           pwd->pw_name, master);

  /* Get old password */
  if ((pwd->pw_passwd != NULL && strlen (pwd->pw_passwd) > 0) ||    
      (pwd->pw_uid != uid))    <<== the old password is set, or trying to change the password of another user.
    {
      char prompt[130];
      char *hashpass, *cp;

      if (pwd->pw_uid != uid)  <<== if changing the password of another user, it prompts the root password.
        snprintf (prompt, sizeof (prompt), _("Please enter root password:"));
      else
        snprintf (prompt, sizeof (prompt), _("Please enter %spassword:"),
                  p_flag ? _("old ") : "");

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