Kali Linux password fail

[Wawe]

From some other boot, ie if kali on emmc, use SDboot, if k on SD, emmc boot or card reader
mount kali / somewhere, cd kali/etc, edit shadow (kali/etc/shadow)
Look for the line with your login name,, for example (for d,, changed)
d:$6$HAGjYB4WRfi91DJ8$l0wAB0N.IalV4hlvsiLjm/MEbi7TK5Jhgi5hyzBVCimYyS5TlYeLuEp0:17525::99999::::
make it
d::17525::99999::::
ie,,$USER::other stuff,, nothing between first 2 colons, this will be passwordless
Do make a backup first, in case you really screw up

Thanks so much for your help. It works!

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You could login as root and force a change password that way. Your other option would be to boot another Linux distro and edit the passwords file under a root account.

Btw, Kali Linux is by design insecure, you really shouldn't use it as a daily driver.

I couldn't login as root because version 2020.1 does not have root account - https://www.linuxuprising.com/2020/01/ka...-root.html

" In an article posted on the Kali blog, it's explained that over the years, more and more users have started to use Kali as their daily driver. With this usage increasing over time, "there is the obvious conclusion that default root user is no longer necessary and Kali will be better off moving to a more traditional security model." "

I still highly recommend not using it as a daily driver if security is important to you. The 'sort' of person who would want to use Kali shouldn't have it as their main OS Also bare in mind that from a threat model perspective, you essentially tell some third party "I am an interesting target".

@wdt has documented for you exactly how to change the password. Be careful!

Yeah, you're right, it wasn't very smart to put it on the main machine. I'll probably put an ubuntu mate there. Thanks for your recommendation.