# Change default password of root user on aws ubuntu ec2 instance

First ssh into your server using the ssh key.

```bash
ssh -i "Mysecretkey.pem" ubuntu@ec2-ip.compute-1.amazonaws.com
```

Once you are logged in, switch to root user with the following command

```bash
sudo su
```

If successful, you will be switched to root.

Optional:

If you want to enable the root level login, then run this one liner command to enable root login

```bash
sed -i -e 's/.*exit 142" \(.*$\)/\1/' /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
```

Then run passwd root

It will ask for the new password

```bash
New password: // Enter new password here
Retype new password: // Re-Enter new password here
```

Once everything is correct, you will get the success message

```bash
passwd: password updated successfully
```

Congratulations, you have successfully changed your root password.

Also, to change the password of the specific user, you can repeat the same procedure, just provide the different username with the switch user (su) command.

That's it !