Step by Step Guide to changing your root and mobile password on your iPhone

[shutter]

With the new worms that are coming out that are taking advantage of ssh and the default password, alot of people are trying to figure out how to protect themselves and their jailbroken iPhone. There are three ways I know to protect yourself.

1) Do not install openSSH
2) Turn off SSH when you are not using it
3) Change your default password for "root" and "mobile"

This guide will focus on the third option.

The first thing you need to do is download a jailbreak app called MobileTerminal onto your iPhone.

1) Open Cydia and tap "Featured Packages"

2) Scroll down and tap "MobileTerminal"

3) Tap "install" in the upper right hand corner, on the next screen tap "confirm" in the upper right hand corner and let cydia install the app, when done, tap "return to cydia" and then close cydia.

4) Scroll to the MobileTerminal Icon on your springboard and tap it.
5) When MobileTerminal opens it will default to your "mobile" folder.

6) Type "passwd" (without the quotes). You will be prompted to enter your old password. if you have never changed your password, the default password is "alpine" (without the quotes). Once the old password is entered, you will be prompted to enter the new password, and then prompted to enter it again. There will be no response on the screen as you type, for security reasons, so make sure you know what you are typing.

 

[shutter]

7) Now that your password for "mobile" is changed, you also want to change the password for your "root" folder as well. Type "su root" (without the quotes), you will be prompted to enter your password (this is still the old/default password "alpine"), enter it.

8) Type "passwd" (without the quotes), since you have already verified your root password...you will be prompted to enter a new password and again prompted to verify the new password. As you type the new password, there will be no response on the screen as you type, for security reasons, so make sure you know what you are typing.

That's it, now you are done, you have successfully changed your root and mobile passwords and if you forget to shut off openSSH....you are not an easy target for hackers.

 

[Brickman]

Thanks Shutter!! This helped!

 

[fmtek]

thanks, .. i changed the ROOT password last week, even though i never installed SSH ... but figured why not..

but i never knew about the MOBILE id.. i just changed that one..

THANKS!

 

[BLiNK]

this thread should eliminate all kinds of silly/meaningless threads. thanks!

 

[jglowe74]

thanks, .. i changed the ROOT password last week, even though i never installed SSH ... but figured why not..

but i never knew about the MOBILE id.. i just changed that one..

THANKS!

i too forgot about my mobile password. thanks shutter for this post! and thanks go to ctt1wbw for posting this in another thread to help remind me too!

 

[sargd66]

Great step by step directions for new ssh users.

 

[steve123411]

Awesome!!! Thanks dude, made a few mistakes at first so my list is a bit longer. Is there a way to clean that list up or does it not matter? I'm a total noob to all this at the moment. But thought I'd change this passwords while it was on my mind since I want to learn SSH.

SSH is just the ability to do more customization to themes correct?

 

[AlecH]

Excellent post, thanks!

 

[Hockey_Player37]

Very much appreciated this post, it encouraged me to mod my sms/email tones. Now I've very happy with my phone!

 

[ctt1wbw]

Is mobile terminal compatible with os 4 yet?

 

[TampaDude]

Is mobile terminal compatible with os 4 yet?

Get Version 426, which is compatible with iOS4.

Go into Cydia, select Manage, then Sources, then add this source:
cydia.xsellize.com

Then search that repo for:
MobileTerminal iOS4

I have it on my iPhone 4 running 4.0.1 and it works perfectly.

 

[billyeha66]

Problem...I'm currently using WinSCP to SSH into my phone with the default passwords. I changed my passwords, without a problem, using the above instructions but now when I open WinSCP to get into my phone, it says the password is incorrect. Anyone else use this program that can help?

 

[farbod21]

Make sure you put "root" as the username in winscp

 

[willthetech]

The mobile terminal on Cydia didn't work for me, i had to find a deb file for mobile terminal 426 and then i was able to do this.

 

[billyeha66]

Make sure you put "root" as the username in winscp

So I still use "root" as the username even after the passwords have been changed? Where is the second password used?

 

[billyeha66]

Never mind...figured it out. Thanks for the help!

 

[jiggaman2g]

I'm assuming that I have a worm already, when I try to SSH into my phone using Winscp I'm getting the " server unexpectedly timed out error" Will me changing this make things better or do my issues require more in-depth work?

 

[tourstagefan]

I downloaded Mobile Terminal for my ViP4.

Problem is, when I tap on the icon, it will not stay open. It opens briefly, then closes.

Has anyone else experienced this? I was thinking of removing the app and re-downloading it.

 

[anon(5335877)]

I downloaded Mobile Terminal for my ViP4.

Problem is, when I tap on the icon, it will not stay open. It opens briefly, then closes.

Has anyone else experienced this? I was thinking of removing the app and re-downloading it.

You probably downloaded an older version.

See my post here.

http://forum.tipb.com/jailbreak-unl...bile-root-passwords-after-jb.html#post1680879