Change admin user password expiry on JunOS SPACE

The admin user on JunOS SPACE, which is used for ssh / root access, has a default password expiry of 70 days. This may not be desired.

NB: An upgrade of the JunOS SPACE platform will set the admin password expiry to the default of 70 days again. To avoid the admin user password being prompted for change after the upgrade, this procedure needs to become part of your documented upgrade procedure for JunOS SPACE:

• Change admin user last password change to be today using chage
• Upgrade SPACE
• Change admin user expiry to “never” using chage

The Linux command “chage” will show you the current settings for a user and let’s you change those:

• Log in as admin via ssh
• Choose “(Debug) run shell”
• Use “chage” to see and then change the admin password expiry:
  chage -l admin
  Last password change : Mar 15, 2016
  Password expires : May 24, 2016
  Password inactive : never
  Account expires : never
  Minimum number of days between password change : 7
  Maximum number of days between password change : 70
  Number of days of warning before password expires : 7
• Change the parameters: 

  chage admin
  Changing the aging information for admin
  Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default

  Minimum Password Age [7]: 0
  Maximum Password Age [70]: 99999
  Last Password Change (YYYY-MM-DD) [2016-03-15]: <today’s date>
  Password Expiration Warning [7]:
  Password Inactive [-1]:
  Account Expiration Date (YYYY-MM-DD) [1969-12-31]:

  And verify:

  chage -l admin
  Last password change : Mar 25, 2016
  Password expires : never
  Password inactive : never
  Account expires : never
  Minimum number of days between password change : 0
  Maximum number of days between password change : 99999
  Number of days of warning before password expires : 7