Setting and changing user passwords

As a superuser, you can set any user's password when you create that user with CREATE USER, or later with ALTER USER. Non-superusers can also change their own passwords with ALTER USER. One exception applies: users who are added to the Vertica database with the LDAPLink service cannot change their passwords with ALTER USER.

You can also give a user a pre-hashed password if you provide its associated salt. The salt must be a hex string. This method bypasses password complexity requirements.

To view password hashes and salts of existing users, see the PASSWORDS system table.

Changing a user's password has no effect on their current session.

Setting user passwords in VSQL

In this example, the user 'Bob' is created with the password 'mypassword.'

=> CREATE USER Bob IDENTIFIED BY 'mypassword';
CREATE USER

The password is then changed to 'Orca.'

=> ALTER USER Bob IDENTIFIED BY 'Orca' REPLACE 'mypassword';
ALTER USER

In this example, the user 'Alice' is created with a pre-hashed password and salt.

=> CREATE USER Alice IDENTIFIED BY
'sha512e0299de83ecfaa0b6c9cbb1feabfbe0b3c82a1495875cd9ec1c4b09016f09b42c1'
SALT '465a4aec38a85d6ecea5a0ac8f2d36d8';

Setting user passwords in Management Console

On Management Console, users with ADMIN or IT privileges can reset a user's non-LDAP password:

1. Sign in to Management Console and navigate to MC Settings > User management.

2. Click to select the user to modify and click Edit.

3. Click Edit password and enter the new password twice.

4. Click OK and then Save.