REBOL/IOS - Resetting the Admin Password

Document Version 1.0
IOS Version 1.0

Contents:

1. Purpose
2. What to Try First
3. Security
4. Steps to Follow
      4.1 Step 1
      4.2 Step 2
      4.3 Step 3
      4.4 Step 4
      4.5 Step 5
      4.6 Step 6
      4.7 Step 7

1. Purpose

This document describes how to reset the primary ADMIN password for your IOS server. This action may be necessary if you happen to lose your ADMIN password and are not successful logging on.

2. What to Try First

Before trying to reset your ADMIN password, it is best to contact any other IOS users on your server who have ADMIN capability. They have the power to reset the ADMIN password using the User-Admin application that is located in the ~Admin~ folder.

If you have no users with this capability, then proceed to the steps below.

3. Security

For security reasons, it is not easy to reset the ADMIN password. That feature is considered a good thing, because with the ADMIN account, a user has total control over your IOS server.

Therefore, you must have the following capabilities:

1. A logon account to access your server.
2. Direct access to your server's installation files (either from the console, desktop, remote admin, or via telnet or SSH).
3. Permissions to read, write, and execute the above files on the server. If you do not have permissions, contact your server's administrator.
4. A executable copy of REBOL/Core. You can download this from REBOL.com.

4. Steps to Follow

4.1 Step 1

Go to your IOS server installation directory. You will be in the correct directory if you see files like rebol-serve, serve-config.r, locations.r, etc.

4.2 Step 2

Stop your IOS server. In windows, you can simply close the server window or use the Task Manager to stop IOS. On Unix, you can use a command like:

kill 18000

Where 18000 is the process ID (returned from ps -ax command). It may be necessary to use:

kill -9 18000

If the prior command did not work.

4.3 Step 3

Put REBOL/Core in the same directory. Make sure that it is executable (chmod 755 on Unix systems).

4.4 Step 4

Paste the following lines into a file (using a text editor such as Notepad or VI):

REBOL [Title: "Reset Admin"] users: load %users.txt admin: users/1 pass: trim ask "New password? " admin/3: checksum/secure rejoin [pass admin/2] ; do not use JOIN save %users.txt users print "Password has been changed. Restart server."

Save the file as "reset-admin.r".

4.5 Step 5

Run the above file with a command line like:

rebol reset-pass.r

Or, if you are using windows, drag the reset-pass.r file onto the REBOL/Core executable file icon.

Type in the new ADMIN password.

4.6 Step 6

Restart your IOS server. Make sure you start it under the correct user account! If you start it on the wrong account, file access may fail or it could end up setting the wrong ownership on new files.

4.7 Step 7

Run the REBOL/Link client and click on the SETUP button to bring up the setup panel. Select the correct server, user, and the new password. Click on the TEST button to verify that the new password works. If it does not work, check that you followed the above steps properly. More specifically, make sure that you actually shut down the IOS server and restarted it correctly.