# user module update\_password changing password to and unknown value

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/user-module-update-password-changing-password-to-and-unknown-value/21280>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [April 26, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/user-module-update-password-changing-password-to-and-unknown-value/21280 "2016-04-26T19:57:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chrono](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/54ee81/32.png) [@chrono](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chrono)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/user-module-update-password-changing-password-to-and-unknown-value/21280/1 "2016-04-26T19:57:47Z")

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Hello Everyone,

I’m trying to change the password of an ID on a few different servers. The result of my playbook says that each of the servers were “changed” however I am unable to login with the new password OR the old password.

Here is the playbook:

> * * *
> 
> - name: Change blahuser password  
> hosts: “{{host\_group}}”  
> sudo: true
> 
> # become\_user: blahuser #Become did not work, I kept getting a permission denied
> 
> # become\_method: sudo
> 
> remote\_user: blahuser  
> vars\_files:
> 
> - ‘/HOME/PATH/ansible/inventory/web/group\_vars/all-servers.yml’  
> tasks:
> - name: change blahuser password  
> user: name=blahuser update\_password=always password=“{{pass}}” #Pass variable is encrypted and stored in all-servers.yml

Here is the command I used:

> ansible-playbook -i /HOME/PATH/ansible/inventory/web/hosts updatePassword.yml -e “host\_group=dev” -vvvv -K

As I mentioned, it seems that the playbook ran and changed the password, but I have no idea what it was changed to.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

- C

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Matt\_Davis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Matt\_Davis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Matt_Davis)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 11:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/user-module-update-password-changing-password-to-and-unknown-value/21280/2 "2016-04-26T23:52:31Z")

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Depending on what you’re trying to set the password on, most things expect a crypted value. See user module docs and [http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/faq.html#how-do-i-generate-crypted-passwords-for-the-user-module](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/faq.html#how-do-i-generate-crypted-passwords-for-the-user-module).