Mac Password

Although there is no real way to restore a root password, you can change the root password, even if you do not know. You need physical access to the machine to perform this task. The following steps were originally on this article which contains a series of monitoring reports on security in general – is worth the time reading noted.

NOTE: The following info has been publicly disclosed on a number of Internet sites, and is not a new find. I’m simply repeating it here for the sake of completeness.

Read the detailed section of this article for step-by-step instructions on regaining access to your root account.

Here are the steps to retrieve access to root:

1. Click Restart at the login window
2. While the computer is restarting, hold down “Command-S” until you see text scrolling through the window. This boots the computer into single user mode.
3. At the Localhost% prompt type:

   /sbin/mount -uw /
   /sbin/SystemStarter

   You will then see various services starting up.

4. When the Localhost% prompt reappears, type:

   passwd root

   It will then ask you to type the new root password twice, so do so.

5. After entering the new password, type:

   reboot

At the login window, enter username root wih the new password. Once you are connected, you can use the Multiple Users application (/Applications/Utilities) to change your normal user’s password, or create a new user account.