Resetting a user’s password

If you forgot the password of an IDSTower user, including the admin account created during installation, reset it from the command line of the IDSTower server. If another administrator can still sign in, they can do it from the web interface instead: Settings → Users, then the Change Password action next to the user.

Running the commands

The commands on this page are options of the IDSTower program itself. On a server installed with the installation script or the packages, run them from /opt/idstower as the idstower service user, the same way the IDSTower service runs:

$ cd /opt/idstower/
$ sudo -u idstower ./IDSTower --list-users

Use sudo -u idstower rather than a plain sudo: a command run as root can leave that day’s log file owned by root, and the IDSTower service can then no longer write to it.

With the Docker image, run them inside the IDSTower container, whose name docker ps shows. Keep the -it flags: the password prompts need a terminal.

$ docker exec -it <container> /opt/idstower/IDSTower --list-users

The examples below use the first form; with Docker, replace sudo -u idstower ./IDSTower with docker exec -it <container> /opt/idstower/IDSTower.

Note

If the container was started with the IDSTowerAdminUsername environment variable, it sets that user’s password at every start (to IDSTowerAdminPassword, or to a random password when that variable is not set) and prints it in its startup output, so the last Password: line in docker logs <container> shows the current one. A password you change for that user is replaced again at the next restart; change IDSTowerAdminPassword and recreate the container instead.

Resetting the password

  1. Find the username of the account. You can sign in with either the username or the account’s email address, but the commands take the username:

$ sudo -u idstower ./IDSTower --list-users
[IDSTower] Users:
[IDSTower]  - admin

  1. Set a new password for it, typing the password twice when prompted:

$ sudo -u idstower ./IDSTower --change-password admin
[IDSTower] Please Enter the new password for User admin
[IDSTower] New Password: ********
[IDSTower] Confirm New Password: ********
2026-01-01 10:15:02.123 [Information] Password changed successfully for User: admin
[IDSTower][Success] User admin Password Changed successfully!

The new password works immediately; there is no need to restart IDSTower. If the two passwords do not match, or the username does not exist, the command prints an [IDSTower][Error] line and changes nothing. Do not leave the password empty: the sign-in page does not accept an empty password. A new password does not re-enable a disabled account either: it still cannot sign in (the sign-in page says User is disabled.) until an administrator enables it again with Enable User in Settings → Users. If no other administrator can sign in, create one with --add-user as shown below, sign in with it, and enable the account.

If the account no longer exists

If the list is empty, or the account you need was deleted, create a new administrator instead. The command asks for the password twice in the same way, and the new account can sign in right away:

$ sudo -u idstower ./IDSTower --add-user admin
[IDSTower] Please Enter the password for User admin
[IDSTower] Password: ********
[IDSTower] Confirm Password: ********
[IDSTower][Success] User admin was added successfully!