Change root password on many machines via SSH

change-root-pword.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# SSH into hosts listed in /root/Documents/machines and change root password
# Create list of hosts not online in /tmp/offline-hosts
# Assumes direct root login is available on remote machines
# Works bes if SSH keys are setup to allow passwordless login of root



# --- Variables --- #

HOST_LIST=$(cat /root/Documents/machines)

# Make sure to clear this out after running. DO NOT store the root password in clear text!
# I have had problems wih certain symbols in the password. You may need to avoid certain characters like {, }, $, ", and '
ROOT_PASSWORD=



# --- Main Program --- #

# Make sure the root password is set before running
if [ "${ROOT_PASSWORD}" == "" ] ; then
   echo -e "\nYou forgot to enter a value for ROOT_PASSWORD\n"
   exit 1
fi

# Cleanup temp files if they exist
if [ -f /tmp/offline-hosts ] ; then rm -f /tmp/offline-hosts ; fi
if [ -f /tmp/root-password-changed] ; then rm -f /tmp/root-password-changed ; fi

for HOST in ${HOST_LIST} ; do

  clear

  echo "Checking to see if ${HOST} is online..."

  ping -q -c 3 ${HOST} 2>&1 > /dev/null

    if [ ${?} = 0 ] ; then

      /usr/bin/ssh $HOST \
      "echo "${ROOT_PASSWORD}" | \
      /usr/bin/passwd --stdin root"

      echo ${HOST} >> /tmp/root-password-changed

    else
 
      echo "${HOST} is offline. Continuing on."
      echo ${HOST} >> /tmp/offline-hosts
      sleep 1

    fi

done