How do I change Dovecot virtual user passwords?

Question

I used one web based control panel to create some virtual users for Dovecot. That control panel no longer works so I need to do this manually.

I need to reset the password for one (virtual) user which is listed in dovecot.passwd file. The file uses CRYPT schema. How do I reset that password?

So the question boils down to - what can use to convert plain text password to CRYPT encrypted format?

score 20 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 21 '12 at 01:51

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You can use the doveadm utility that comes with Dovecot:

$ doveadm pw -s CRYPT
Enter new password: 
Retype new password: 
{CRYPT}1cElWVzS3.EVg

answered Oct 21 '12 at 01:51

Richard Hansen

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Does this make the dovecot password independent of the linux user password? – User Oct 31 '15 at 19:40
@User: Not by itself. This is for virtual users; system users use the system password. See http://wiki2.dovecot.org/VirtualUsers – Richard Hansen Oct 31 '15 at 19:53
Can a virtual user and a system user have the same username? – User Oct 31 '15 at 20:23

jscott · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-05T19:17:41.140

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You can use the Apache utility htpasswd. It uses crypt() to encrypt passwords by default on Linux platforms. The following will prompt you for the new password for the user jscott and will update the file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.passwd.

htpasswd /etc/dovecot/dovecot.passwd jscott

edited Feb 05 '12 at 19:17

answered Feb 05 '12 at 19:12

jscott

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Word of caution. If you are using the same file as userdb too then it will have other fields which the above method will remove. So instead I guess the safer way is to use `htpasswd -n jscott`. This will print the encrypted password to console. Copy that manually into the passwd file. – AppleGrew Feb 06 '12 at 03:21
If you have CentOS, you might not have htpasswd `yum install httpd-tools` via http://serverfault.com/a/568771/82801 Also, use the `-c` switch to create the file if you don't have `dovecot.passwd` yet. – PJ Brunet Feb 10 '17 at 18:38

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 23 '14 at 21:01

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or to avoid the prompts do:

doveadm pw -s CRYPT -p yourpassword -u user

answered Apr 23 '14 at 21:01

heyMelo27

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This is generally a bad practice however, as the line (including the plain text password) will show in your shell history, running commands, etc. – Andrew White Sep 22 '16 at 23:31

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 21 '19 at 14:58

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doveadm pw -s SHA512-CRYPT

is also good.

answered Nov 21 '19 at 14:58

eric

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How do I change Dovecot virtual user passwords?

4 Answers4

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