This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org: --- Title : Reset the SYSTEM password on OpenVMS 8.4 Author : Remy van Elst Date : 03-02-2021 URL : https://raymii.org/s/blog/OpenVMS_reset_SYSTEM-password.html Format : Markdown/HTML --- This short post shows you how to reset the SYSTEM account password on a single OpenVMS 8.4 ALpha machine via the serial console. You need physical access to the machine and the procedure looks a lot like linux and appending `init=/bin/bash` to the GRUB commandline to boot into single user mode. It is tested on the AXPbox Alpha emulator, I forgot my password after not using it for a month.

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This procedure was tested with the AXPbox Alpha emulator and VSI OpenVMS 8.4-1. ### Boot into single user mode Type following command in boot console to perform a conversational boot: P00>>> boot dqa0 -flags 0,1 Replace `dqa0` by your boot device. Enter the following commands in the next prompt to boot into single user mode: SET/STARTUP OPA0: SET WINDOW_SYSTEM 0 SET WRITESYSPARAMS 0 CONTINUE Type following DCL commands to reset the SYSTEM account password: SPAWN @SYS$SYSTEM:STARTUP SET DEFAULT SYS$SYSTEM: RUN SYS$SYSTEM:AUTHORIZE MODIFY SYSTEM /PASSWORD=example Exit out of `UAF` with `CTRL+Z` and reboot the system (`SHUTDOWN` or `REBOOT`) and you should be able to login with the newly reset password. ### Linux? On Debian systems you can reset a root password by rebooting, appending `init=/bin/bash` to the `linux` line of GRUB (bootloader), remounting the disk as read-write (`mount -o remount,rw`) resetting the password (`passwd`) and rebooting (`exec /sbin/init 6`). You need physical access as well and the OpenVMS procedure is very similar, albeit with different commands. --- License: All the text on this website is free as in freedom unless stated otherwise. This means you can use it in any way you want, you can copy it, change it the way you like and republish it, as long as you release the (modified) content under the same license to give others the same freedoms you've got and place my name and a link to this site with the article as source. This site uses Google Analytics for statistics and Google Adwords for advertisements. You are tracked and Google knows everything about you. Use an adblocker like ublock-origin if you don't want it. All the code on this website is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 license unless already licensed under a license which does not allows this form of licensing or if another license is stated on that page / in that software: This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see . Just to be clear, the information on this website is for meant for educational purposes and you use it at your own risk. I do not take responsibility if you screw something up. Use common sense, do not 'rm -rf /' as root for example. If you have any questions then do not hesitate to contact me. See https://raymii.org/s/static/About.html for details.