Kali Linux is a powerful Linux distribution tailored for digital forensics and penetration testing, making it a trusted tool for cybersecurity professionals. What if you don’t remember the password you created, or need to reset it? Well, in that case, you can easily reset or update it from the settings. In this guide, we’ll show how to reset your Kali Linux password by following a few easy steps.

Reset Kali Linux Password

To reset your password, you need to start or restart your Kali Linux. Next, access the advanced settings by selecting Advanced options for Kali GNU/Linux.

Now, press e to enter the GRUB editor which will allow you to adjust the boot settings needed to reset your password. After entering the GRUB editor, find the line that begins with the word Linux and ends with a quiet splash.

Move to the required line using the arrow keys, as the mouse does not work in the editor. Now, alter the line from ro quiet splash to rw init=/bin/bash, it’ll change the read-only permission to read-write and enter single-user mode with root permissions.

Now, press Ctrl+x to exit the menu after making changes. After exiting the menu, a root shell prompt will appear on your screen. You can reset your password here. If you don’t remember your username, you can easily find it by running this command, which will display the contents of the /home directory or show every user of the system:

$ ls /home

Here, you can observe your username. In my case, it’s muser:

Now, enter the new password you want to set, and then retype it to confirm:

Finally, you’ve successfully changed your password. Once completed, reboot your Kali Linux system by executing the reboot command:

$ reboot -f

After your system reboots, login with the new password:

The successful login depicts that you’ve reset your password. Enjoy using your Kali Linux without any problems!

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you’re a Kali Linux user and have forgotten your password, there’s no need to worry. Simply reboot your system, go to Advanced options for Kali GNU/Linux, locate ro quiet splash, and change it to rw init=/bin/bash before saving. In this manner, you can quickly reset your password, even without advanced knowledge of Kali Linux.