Having installed Remote Desktop on my Ubuntu Intrepid box makes me easy to control my desktop from anywhere to work,  but today when i tried to connect to my desktop,i forgot the password for it

frustated

frustated

then i try to find some answers to change remote desktop password from terminal by googling, so i found this solution for 8.04 :

- gconftool-2 -s -t bool /desktop/gnome/remote_access/enabled false
- gconf-editor
- paste encode password from: http://www.javazoom.net/services/base64/base64.jsp
- or use:
- gconftool-2 -s -t string /desktop/gnome/remote_access/vnc_password <encode_pwd>
- or use:
- System-> preferences-> Remote Desktop
- set pwd as desired…
- manual text edit of %gconf.xml does not seem to work!
- gconftool-2 -s -t bool /desktop/gnome/remote_access/enabled true
- verify .gconf/desktop/gnome/remote_access/%gconf.xml

but unfortunately the path for Intrepid seems to change, and i’m having this problem when i try to edit the file :

Failure listing entries in `/home/user1/.gconf/desktop/gnome/remote_access’: Bad key or directory name: “/home/user1/.gconf/desktop/gnome/remote_access”: Can’t have a period ‘.’ right after a slash ‘/’

soooo.. lets try to improvise :

locate remote_access
-> /home/user1/.gconf/desktop/gnome/remote_access
vim /home/user1/.gconf/desktop/gnome/remote_access/%gconf.xml

after looking at the %gconf.xml file, i found this line :

<entry name=”vnc_password” mtime=”1242031453″ type=”string”>
<stringvalue>ZW5jb2Rl</stringvalue>
</entry>

interesting…. so i go to HERE to decode the password (or you can find encode/decode function in php or any other programming language, then,Voilaaaa…i have change the remote desktop password then connect again using VNC.

The main issue in my mind now is, if the password is that easy to decode, then if u do have a remote desktop on your ubuntu desktop/server its VERY recomended to increase your level of security, like having firewall installed, change the default port for services installed (SSH,etc2),have a GOOD PASSWORD, and any other securities you can apply to your box.