Why isn't OSX recognizing a blank user password?

September 16, 2005 4:22 PM

OSX_Admin_Filter: How do I get OS X 10.4 to allow me to give a blank password to a new user?

This is trickier than it may sound: I set up three user accounts each on 10 new G5's. All of them running the same system (10.4). The first account was the admin account. There is a user name and a password on this account. I then set up two additional accounts lets call them user X and user Y. I did *not* give these accounts passwords, they are student machines and passwords are not needed.

On 8 of the 10 machines there is no problem logging in as user X or user Y. Simply click on the user icon and you are logged in, no password needed. On two of the machines you are prompted for a password (even though there is none). It seems impossible to login to these X and Y accounts because not even the admin password will work.(I can login as the admin and access the computer) I'm totally confounded. Any help appreciated.

posted by jeremias to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Did you try hitting enter with a blank password?

OS X will put a ***** in the password field making it look like it's not blank but this is just a security measure so that if people are looking over your shoulder they do not realize there is no password.
posted by dobbs at 8:53 PM on September 16, 2005

Tiger will definitely allow a blank password. The only issue I've had is changing an existing password to a blank.

Requisite security plea: it's really not a good idea to have a blank password on a machine unless it is sitting behind a firewall, or is no on the internet, period. In general though, turn off all your sharing services, especially "personal file sharing" and "remote login".
posted by drmarcj at 9:12 PM on September 16, 2005

As noted in the "more inside" I gave blank passwords to 10 machines and only 8 of them allowed it for some reason. 2 machines do not allow blank passwords at all. In fact, if I give these separate accounts a password (say "science") they still don't accept the password.

So I guess the question could be rephrased as OSX doesn't allow me to create user accounts aside from the admin.
posted by jeremias at 12:28 AM on September 17, 2005

jeremias, try creating two new accounts, one with a password, one without. See if you can log in to either, then report back.

Second the advice on disabling remote login and personal file sharing.
posted by onalark at 5:52 AM on September 17, 2005

The trail gets warmer, perhaps. Created two new accounts, one with a password, one without. OS X doesn't let me login to either of them!

This is the first install on these machines. This feels like it might be some Unix weirdness?
posted by jeremias at 6:15 AM on September 17, 2005