How to set root password on ReadyNAS

Recently I had forgotten my ReadyNAS password.  Even worse, I couldn't login at all due reckless upgrade I did on the box.  I was able to undo the upgrade by letting the box recopy the Linux from its firmware to the drive (see ReadyNAS forum/documentation on how to make the ReadyNAS box recopy the firmware), but still I forgot what my root password was.

Various steps I had tried as I found on the Internet as well as on the ReadyNAS website, but none of them work. Finally, I had an idea to just access the drive directly thru SATA-to-USB cable and reset the password manually.

Basically what I did was to set the root password stored in the file /etc/passwd (fortunately the authententication is still the old-fashioned one, where the MD5 encrypted password stored directly in the file instead in shadow file).

You might ask, "How the hell I access the drive?".  Well, first you need remove the drive from the ReadyNAS bay (make sure it is turned off!!) then  attach the SATA-to-USB cable to the drive.  Connect the usb end to our PC.

We cannot mount directly to the drive, because some other issues.  To mount, see my previous post ("How to mount disk used by ReadyNAS").  Once it is  mounted (just mount the ext3 partition [first partition], no need to mount the LVM), we can now modify the file /etc/passwd.

First, save the following script (thanks to somebody who posted it on the Internet), say, as /home/<yourloginname>/bin/setpasswd:


#!/usr/bin/perl
################################################################################
# Generate an MD5 hash for a string.
# Created to allow me to set a blank Linux password. Required this to create
# multiple VsFTP accounts with anonymous style credientials.
#
# If all you want is the MD5 Hash for NULL (blank password) here's one...
# $1$VNMbpxGH$sew7cnwH9ixU.x27UbFNn.
#
# Advice: If replacing a Linux password with a blank string, ensure you give 
# the user a shell of /sbin/nologin as you wouldn't want them to login!
################################################################################
# Load dependancies...
# perl -MCPAN -e 'install Crypt::PasswdMD5'
################################################################################

use strict;
use Crypt::PasswdMD5 qw(unix_md5_crypt);
my @salt = ( '.', '/', 0 .. 9, 'A' .. 'Z', 'a' .. 'z' );
my %encrypted;


sub abort {
print "ABORT: $_[0]\n";
exit 1
}


sub gensalt { #------------------------------------------------------------
# uses global @salt to construct salt string of requested length
my $count = shift;

my $salt;
for (1..$count) {
$salt .= (@salt)[rand @salt];
}

return $salt;
} # end gensalt


sub get_encryptedpw { #--------------------------------------------------
my $unencrypted="$_[0]";

# generate traditional (weak!) DES password, and more modern md5
$encrypted{des} = crypt( $unencrypted, gensalt(2) );
$encrypted{md5} = unix_md5_crypt( $unencrypted, gensalt(8) );

return %encrypted;
}

################################################################################
print "Enter password string to encrypt (can be blank) : ";
my $password = <STDIN>;
chomp $password;

get_encryptedpw($password);

print "Plaintext \"$password\" = MD5 Hash: $encrypted{md5}\n";
print "\nReplace the /etc/shadow password string with the above to force pass change\n";


(Don't forget to make it executable by doing "chmod +x ./setpasswd)
Run the script.  It will ask you to enter a password.  An example of the output (with blank password):


$ setpasswd
Enter password string to encrypt (can be blank) : 
Plaintext "" = MD5 Hash: $1$udf2EDLY$a/cLQQ4h25rwZQc9VKmG6/

Replace the /etc/shadow password string with the above to force pass change

Copy the portion after the string "MD5 Hash: " above and paste it in the <READYNAS MOUNTPOINT>/etc/passwd.  To be precise, it should be pasted in line where "root:...". Paste it right after "root:", and let the rest of the existing text still intact.

Save the file, unmount (just use the regular umount for this one), reinsert the drive into the ReadyNAS bay and turn it on.  Once it is running, try to SSH to the box as root and enter the new password.  It should work!