Mac OS X Server: About Changing a User‘s Password to a Blank (Null) Value

Server Admin (versions 10.1 to 10.1.5) and Workgroup Manager (versions 10.2 or later) do not allow you to do either of the following:

• create a user without a password
• edit a user's password to be blank

Users may get a blank password one of these ways:

• AppleShare clients can click Change Password in a connection dialog and set a null value.
• Macintosh Manager clients prior to version 2.2 can click Change Password from the Macintosh Manager Login Window and set a null value.

Note: Macintosh Manager 2.2 and later do not allow users to change their passwords to a blank value. Macintosh Manager 2.2 and later also do not allow users to change their passwords from a blank value to a real one.

In the Macintosh Manager admin application, you may prevent a user from changing her password. This is not a feature, however, of Server Admin or Workgroup Manager.

If you want to turn off the Change Password feature in Macintosh Manager, click the Global tab then the Security tab in the Macintosh Manager admin application. Though Macintosh Manager can prevent users from changing their passwords, a user can still change his password when he connects to a server using the standard AppleShare connection dialog.

The same processes can be used to change a password from a null value to a real value with Mac OS X Server 10.1 through 10.1.5. Server Admin can also be used to create a real value for a user's password.

With Mac OS X Server 10.2 or later, a user cannot change her password from a blank value while at a standard AppleShare connection dialog. With Macintosh Manager 2.2 or later, a user cannot change his password from the Login Window. Only Workgroup Manager can be used to change a password from a blank value with Mac OS X Server 10.2 or later.