canonical / canonical/authd

Root should not have to authenticate as another user to change that user's password

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Dominant language
Go
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308
Forks
41
Avg merge
2d 4h
Merged PRs (30d)
58

Description

Currently, when changing a user's local password, we require authentication as that user:

```
sudo passwd @.onmicrosoft.com
Enter your local password:
>
```

Root should be able to change the local password of a user without authenticating as that user, same as for Unix accounts:
```
sudo passwd foo
New password:
```

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Trace the password-change path used by `sudo passwd @.onmicrosoft.com` and compare it with the Unix `sudo passwd foo` flow. Done means root can change another user's local password without authenticating as that user, while the existing user-password behavior remains appropriate.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
authentication
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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