You'll need to boot your Mac into Recovery Mode in order to access the password reset tool. I've found the easiest way to do that is to turn off your Mac. With your Mac turned off, press and hold.
Root Password For Mac
Root user in Mac OS is an individual user, different than administrators and has exclusive rights and powers to make any change to the system. If you forgot the password of Mac OS Root user, see how to recover Root password using different methods in Mac OS. In this guide, you will see how to reset or change root user password using the Directory Utilities, from the Terminal app or with the help of a boot DVD.
See also: How to Enable/Disable Root User on Mac
Change the root password
Root password can be changed from Directory Utilities.
Here I want to describe tutorial which works on my Mac. MySQL version: mysql Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.20, for macos10.12 (x8664) using EditLine wrapper Mac OS version: Sierra 10.12.6. Please take care about root access in production environment. I’m feel free to connect to my MySQL db using root because it is my development environment. In the meantime, setting a root password prevents unauthorised access to your Mac. To enable the Root User and set a password, please follow the instructions here. If a Root User is already. Change a root user password on Mac. If you need to keep the root user account open but need to change the password, this is pretty simple. Again, follow the same steps one through five above. When you get to step six, select Edit Change Root Password from the menu bar.
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Click the Apple menu (), select System Preferences, and then click Users & Groups (or Accounts) according to your Mac OS version.
Now, click the Lock icon to make changes, and you have to enter administrator name and password.
Click Login Options and then Click Join (or Edit) depends on Mac OS version.
Select Open Directory Utility, and here again click the Lock, and then enter the admin username and password.
Once you are on the Directory Utility window, on the top click the menu Edit > Change Root Password.
Type and change the root password.
Set root password using Terminal
Click Finder icon on the dock and Navigate to Applications > Utilities and launch Terminal
Copy and paste or just type the following command in the Terminal window and hit enter/return sudo passwd root It asks for your password, so enter the password of your current login and press enter/return.
Now it asks to set a New password for Root user, type new password and hit enter/return.
Retype Root password and press enter/return.
The Root password has been changed.
Reset root user password with installation DVD
Use installation DVD of Mac OS X to boot your Mac and through Reset Password option set a new password for Root.
Right, this isn’t a good day for Apple.
As first reported on Twitter by Lemi Orhan Ergin, you can bypass just about any security dialog on Mac OSX High Sierra (10.13) by using the root user without a password.
Use the user root and click _Unlock _several times, you’ll eventually bypass the dialog and be granted root privileges. You can try it if you go to the Users & Groups settings screen and click Lock at the bottom.
I’d be very curious to know the technical reasons why this was possible in the first place.
Update: be sure to disable the root user after test
Turns out, testing this actually creates a root user without a password in the background! Make sure to disable the root user in System Preferences to prevent this from getting any worse than it already is.
For a quick workaround, set a non-default (aka: anything) password on the root user via the terminal.
Once a password has been set, it wont change to an empty value anymore.
Root Password For Mac Desktop
Also applicable to Remote Management
If you’ve enabled Remote Management, anyone can log into your Mac using the root user with an empty password.
Woops.
Responsible disclosure?
This issue was first reported on Twitter and is now getting widespread traction. This isn’t exactly a good way to disclose security issues, but I’m willing to bet the reporter perhaps didn’t think it would go this far in the media?
Root Password For Mac
There’s an entire KB about reporting security issues to Apple, if someone ever feels the need to report similar security bugs.