Try running the command “authconfig --updateall” at root shell in single/maintenance/emergency mode. Should fix the issue

So I did mount read and write, etc. But every time I got to reset the password, I would get “permission denied“. But I finally figured out the fix: when you get to root shell, run the command “authconfig --updateall” and all PAM config auth files and other functions that are called up by the /etc/pam.d/ config files will be recreated.

Removing whatever hardened lockdown restriction was applied that locked you out, to begin with. I wasted 20 hrs working on this stupid issue. Hope this works for someone else who can’t change the root password in single-user mode or emergency mode.

@Bob,

Have you mounted your root filesytem in read/write mode? if not do:

# mount -o remount,rw /

Or edit the kernel booting options, change ro init=/sysroot/bin/sh to rw init=/sysroot/bin/sh and boot your system and run these commands:

chroot /sysroot
passwd root
touch /.autorelabel
reboot

You now should be able to loggin as root user.

"changing password for user root."
"passwd: permission denied"

Selinux is disabled, FIPS mode off, I’ve tried to figure out why this is happening to my server all of the sudden and cannot log into it anymore with any account.