bin/58012: passwd always errors out; cannot change passwords anymore

[michael.cheponis%gmail.com@localhost]

>Number:         58012
>Category:       bin
>Synopsis:       passwd always errors out; cannot change passwords anymore
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    bin-bug-people
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sat Mar 09 05:05:00 +0000 2024
>Originator:     Mike Cheponis
>Release:        10.0_RC5
>Organization:
self
>Environment:
NetBSD SS.Culver.Net 10.0_RC5 NetBSD 10.0_RC5 (GENERIC) #0: Tue Feb 27 05:27:39 UTC 2024  mkrepro%mkrepro.NetBSD.org@localhost:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC am
>Description:
1. Used sysupgrade to go from _RC3 to _RC5
2. Somehow, that cause the spwd.db password database to change
3. All passwords were changed, I could not log on even to root

4. I saved /etc so I copied into /etc a previous version of spwd.db
5. This allowed logging in to the machine.
6. passwd always fails henceforth like this:

# passwd mac
Changing password for mac.
New Password:
Retype New Password:
Couldn't generate salt.
Unable to change auth token: Error in service module
#

7.Note was root user; cannot change any password, not even root
passwd.conf:    localcipher = argon2id

other info:

[     1.000000] NetBSD 10.0_RC5 (GENERIC) #0: Tue Feb 27 05:27:39 UTC 2024
[     1.000000]         mkrepro%mkrepro.NetBSD.org@localhost:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC
[     1.000000] total memory = 32506 MB
[     1.000000] avail memory = 31424 MB
[     1.000004] cpu0: Intel(R) N200, id 0xb06e0
[     1.056239] drm at genfb0 not configured
[     1.056239] Intel Alder Lake Dynamic Tuning Technology (miscellaneous DASP) at pci0 dev 4 function 0 not configured
[     1.056239] Intel Alder Lake Crash Log & Telemetry (miscellaneous DASP, revision 0x01) at pci0 dev 10 function 0 not configured
[     1.056239] ld0 at nvme0 nsid 1
[     1.056239] ld0: 931 GB, 121601 cyl, 255 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 1953525168 sectors


>How-To-Repeat:
# passwd ANYUSER
Changing password for ANYUSER.
New Password:
Retype New Password:
Couldn't generate salt.
Unable to change auth token: Error in service module
#
>Fix: