Is Webmin locking the root user by default?

Webmin
1
SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version Debian 12
Webmin version Latest

I installed a new VPS with SSH key and added Webmin as usual. In order to access Webmin I had to add password in order to login to Webmin as usual.

sudo passwd root 123...

but this time I could not login to Webmin. When I checked the status of root, I was surprisingly locked:

sudo passwd -S root
root L 2023-07-07 0 99999 7 -1

I know I can unlock, but I wonder if this is a new “feature” of Webmin? The VPS vendor claims that it is not locked when deployed.

2

I don’t think so , else everyone would be jumping up and down and no one else has reported it.
By default you can login with root password (unless webmin is different to virtualmin) you don’t need to change it.
P.S. I just tested, that is the case.

3

Webmin didn’t do it! By default, the root Unix account is disabled on Debian/Ubuntu systems for “enhanced” security.

I’d like to point out that you don’t need to unlock the root Unix account. Instead, you can set a password specifically for Webmin user using:

webmin passwd root
4

Works perfect! Thank you!

5

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