[Bug 795550] [NEW] passwd failure resulted in change to unknown password

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I normally have my user password pretty simple since my computer is
always under my control. I recently took a trip where I knew it was not
going to be under my control so I changed it to be more complex, using
passwd. When I returned from the trip, I tried to change it back to the
simple one and an error was reported because of the new (?) password
policy with Natty. So, it looked like it did not change the password.
However, it did get changed to something which was neither the old one
or the new one I requested. So I was locked out. I ended up having to
reinstall. I know this is a tough one because I probably won't be able
to repeat it, nor do I want to go through the install once again. I
don't want to give you my password, but I will characterize it by saying
the simple one was 5 lower case characters and 1 number. The complex one
was 5 lower case characters and 4 digits. I tried to change from the
complex one back to the simple one when the failure occurred.

Anyway, because of the abnoxious nature of this problem, I wanted to
report it, even though it may be difficult for you to do anything
further.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: passwd 1:4.1.4.2+svn3283-3ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Jun 10 08:30:57 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: shadow
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

** Affects: shadow (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: Incomplete


** Tags: amd64 apport-bug natty running-unity
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passwd failure resulted in change to unknown password
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/795550
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