Check /etc/shadow file permissions:
ls -la /etc/shadow
You should see…
**-rw-rw-rw-**
This means that the owner, group and all users have read and write permission for the file. Big win for us.
Generate new root password & Su2Root
openssl passwd <-hash_format> -salt <any_word_as_salt> <The_actual_password>
Here we used passwd to specify that we want to generate a Linux hashed password, -1 means MD5 hash and salt is abc then the actual password
openssl passwd -1 salt abc password123
Example password:
This must be replaced between semicolons after the name:
$1$WXYViePQ$KBzlD0/sekZbcbzvo1AHI.