How to Update a cPanel Account Password

  • Published on Apr 20, 2026
  • 1 minute(s) read
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There are a few methods which you can update your cPanel password. This can be done in cPanel itself, WHM or via SSH.

Via cPanel

Notes

You will need to log in with your cPanel account for this method. So this is not ideal for forgotten passwords without WHM access.

  1. Log in to cPanel and under the ‘Preferences’ section, click on ‘Password & Security’.

  1. Enter the Old Password (the current), then either set a New Password and repeat, or you can click on the ‘Password Generator’,


If you would like to auto-generate one, Click on ‘Generate Password’, copy the password into a safe place, and then tick the box.

Click on Use Password when ready.

  1. Then click on ‘Change your password now!’
    Button prompting users to change their password for account security improvement.

Note

This will log you out, check to see if your new password works by logging back in and you're done!

Via WHM

1. The easiest method is via WHM by going to  ‘List Accounts’, generally listed under Favorites but can be searched for in the search box.

  1. Search or find the domain in the list, then click the + button to the left of the domain.

  1. Enter the new password and then click on Change.

Alternate WHM

  1. The other method via WHM is to search for ‘Password Modification’ under the ‘Account Functions’ section.

  1. Select the cPanel account you want to change the password on. Search if needed.

  1. Click on ‘Generate’, confirm the password and then click ‘Change Password’.

Via SSH

Note

This method requires root SSH access, and some knowledge of command line operations.

  1. SSH into the server as root.

  2. Type 

passwd username

Replace username with the cPanel account in question.

root@SAU-ID:~# passwd username

Changing password for the user “username” …

Changing password for “username”.

New UNIX password:

Retype new UNIX password:

info [passwd] internal PURGE username:IQt2J9HN8aAe97T1 password_change

passwd: The system has successfully updated all authentication tokens.

The system has updated the passwords for the following services: MySQL, ftp, mail, system