Resetting SYSTEM account password in Oracle Database

In the past a few students came to me with the problem that they are not able to login using system account as they forgot its password. System account is administrator's account. We have to use this account to unlock HR account starting from Oracle Database 10g onwards.

Its password is given at the time of installation.

However, we do forget passwords. If you forget other user's password then you can change that using SYSTEM account, as it has administrator privileges and can be used to change any account's password. But what if you forget SYSTEM account password itself??? Well, no need to panic. There is a way to reset SYSTEM account password other than reinstalling Oracle Database.

So, in this blog, I want to show you how to change password of SYSTEM account so that you can use it again.

Steps

Take the following steps in Oracle Database 10g or 11g.

Run SQL*PLUS using Run SQL Command Line in Oracle Database 11g
Connect to Oracle Database as SYSDBA as follows:
```
SQL>connect as sysdba
```
It will ask you to enter username. Enter SYS as username.
When prompted for password, enter change_on_install, which is the password for SYS account.
Once you are connected to SYS account, you get adminstrator privileges. So, you can use ALTER USER command to change password of SYSTEM account as follow:
```
SQL> ALTER USER system IDENTIFIED BY oracle;
```
The above command changes password of SYSTEM account to oracle. Be careful passwords are case-sensitive.
That's all you have to do to change password for SYSTEM account when you forget the password.
Here is the snapshot of the SQL*PLUS screen, which shows all required steps.