Mac OS logs in with any password and prompts to create a new keychain or update the keychain password

07
2014-07
  • Pratik Patel

    I recently had a problem with my MacBook so I had reset the SMC and the PRAM. After having the problem resolved, when I first logged into Mac OS (Mavericks 10.9.3) all my settings were reset. After a few days I noticed that, when my mac would get auto locked after a certain period, I could unlock it using any password. I rebooted the system and I tried logging-in with a blank password(or any password for that matter) and the OS said that it could not find the password in the login keychain and asked me to either update the keychain password or crete a new keychain. I updated the keychain password, but the problem persists.

    Just for the sake of verification, I also checked the shell in Terminal and even there, the sudo and su commands have stopped prompting for passwords and just work without the password.

    How do I get my system authentication to behave normally again?

    P.S.

    • I have verified that I DO have a password set for the user as well as all the keychains and when I use the original password, it does not give me any update keychain prompts and behaves normally. It only gives the keychain prompts at login if I use a wrong or blank password.

    • I have tried disk repair as well as keychain repair and there were no problems found in both the scans. I also did a disk permissions verifications and found no problems there either.

    • I cannot delete my current keychain and create a new one because I have been using this system for 5 years and I have a lot of items in the default keychain (416 to be precise) that I cannot do without. A lot of them are not exportable so exporting all the keychain items is also not an option for now.

    • I have tried changing my user account password as well as the keychain password for the default login keychain to no avail.

    • I only have a single admin user on my machine and the guest account is turned off and also the automatic login has been turned off.

    • I do not have any time machine backups (or any backups for that matter) of my system that I can restore.

    • I have also checked the visudo file and there are no NOPASSWD entries in there.

    • Answers
    Know someone who can answer? Share a link to this question via email, Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.

    Related Question

    Vista password prompt doesn't work until I "switch user"
  • Questioner

    Occasionally on my Vista laptop I will be greeted with a password prompt. However it will not accept my password as valid (I've done this enough times to know that it's not a case of me forgetting my password).

    If I click the "switch user" button, then I can login as normal and all my processes and windows are still running just as I left them.

    Any ideas?


    • Related Answers
  • harrymc

    This might be a problem with using a buggy screensaver, if it's not one of the standard ones that come with Windows.

    Try to change the screensaver and see if the problem persists.
    If it still happens, try to turn it off (define the screensaver as None).

  • Mike K

    I had this problem as well, I was running Vista ultimate on a HP laptop. I couldnt figure it out either, so I just upgraded to windows 7 Pro. Now I have no more issues

  • Saxtus

    Check default language at the lower corner.

  • Blackbeagle

    Assuming you are getting the logon prompt while running, then it may be the screen saver password option is set. Right click the desktop, go to properties, go to screen saver and uncheck On resume display logon prompt.

    If this is your problem, then I'd try and go into Start-Control Panel-User Accounts and Family Safety-Change Your Windows password. Try and change it, shut down completely, come back up and reset the screen saver to require password, change to only a minute or so and test.

  • fluxtendu

    It could be two things:

    1) Keyboard language issue:

    Compare the two account:

    1. Click Start and then Control Panel
    2. In Control Panel, if you are in Classic View, click on Control Panel Home (top left corner)
    3. Open Clock, Language, and Region
    4. Click on Regional and Language Options.

    5. Check the Keyboards and Languages tab

      And use the settings of the working account on the other one

    6. Check also your administrative tab. And If your are sure of your settings you could use the "Copy to reserved accounts" under "Reserved accounts"

    2) State of F-Lock/Numlock keys issue:

    Try to change their states before entering your password

    If it works, they are some registry keys to change it permanently