Recover admin user and password

This page describes how to reset a password to recover a user’s access when their password is lost. It specifically focuses on how to recover an admin user if all the admin users have been unassigned the admin role, and how to recreate the built-in admin role if it has been dropped.

Disable authentication

Stop Neo4j:
```
bin/neo4j stop
```
Open the neo4j.conf file and set dbms.security.auth_enabled parameter to false to disable the authentication:
```
dbms.security.auth_enabled=false
```
Block network connections during the recovery phase, so users can connect to Neo4j only via localhost. This can be achieved by temporarily commenting out the server.default_listen_address parameter and providing the specific localhost value:
```
server.default_listen_address=127.0.0.1
```
Ensure, you have blocked all network connections for any individual services configured to listen to listen_addresses.
Start Neo4j:
```
bin/neo4j start
```

Stop all members of the cluster:
```
bin/neo4j stop
```
On each member, open the neo4j.conf file and modify the following settings:
1. Set dbms.security.auth_enabled parameter to false to disable the authentication:
  dbms.security.auth_enabled=false
2. Disable the HTTP and HTTPS network connections and restrict the bolt connector to use only localhost. Set server.http.enabled to false. This ensures that no one from outside can access the cluster during the recovery period.
  server.http.enabled=false #server.https.enabled=true server.bolt.listen_address:127.0.0.1
Start all members of the cluster:
```
bin/neo4j start
```

Recover a lost password

You can use a client such as Cypher Shell or the Neo4j Browser to connect to the system database and set a new password for the admin user.

In a cluster deployment, you should complete the steps only on one of the cluster members.

Complete the steps in Disable authentication as per your deployment.

Connect to the system database using Cypher shell. Alternatively, log into Neo4j Browser.

bin/cypher-shell -d system

Cluster

If you have specified a non-default port for your bolt connector, add -a neo4j://<your-cluster-member>:<non-default-bolt-port> to the cypher-shell command to be able to connect to your cluster member.

Set a new password for the admin user. In this example, the admin user is named neo4j.
```
ALTER USER neo4j SET PASSWORD 'mynewpassword'
```
Exit the cypher-shell console:
```
:exit;
```
Proceed with the post-recovery steps as per your deployment.

Recover an unassigned admin role

You can use a client such as Cypher Shell or the Neo4j Browser to connect to the system database and grant the admin user role to an existing user.

In a cluster deployment, you should complete the steps only on one of the cluster members.

Complete the steps in Disable authentication as per your deployment.

Connect to the system database using Cypher shell. Alternatively, log into Neo4j Browser.

bin/cypher-shell -d system

Cluster

Grant the admin user role to an existing user. In this example, the user is named neo4j.
```
GRANT ROLE admin TO neo4j
```
Exit the cypher-shell console:
```
:exit;
```
Proceed with the post-recovery steps as per your deployment.

Recover the admin role

If you have removed the admin role from your system entirely, you can use a client such as Cypher Shell or the Neo4j Browser to connect to the system database and recreate the role with its original capabilities.

In a cluster deployment, you should complete the steps only on one of the cluster members.

Complete the steps in Disable authentication as per your deployment.

Connect to the system database using Cypher shell. Alternatively, log into Neo4j Browser.

bin/cypher-shell -d system

Cluster

Recreate the admin role with its original capabilities.

CREATE ROLE admin;
GRANT ACCESS ON DATABASE * TO `admin`;
GRANT ALL DBMS PRIVILEGES ON DBMS TO `admin`;
GRANT CONSTRAINT MANAGEMENT ON DATABASE * TO `admin`;
GRANT INDEX MANAGEMENT ON DATABASE * TO `admin`;
GRANT LOAD ON ALL DATA TO `admin`;
GRANT MATCH {*} ON GRAPH * NODE * TO `admin`;
GRANT MATCH {*} ON GRAPH * RELATIONSHIP * TO `admin`;
GRANT NAME MANAGEMENT ON DATABASE * TO `admin`;
GRANT SHOW CONSTRAINT ON DATABASE * TO `admin`;
GRANT SHOW INDEX ON DATABASE * TO `admin`;
GRANT START ON DATABASE * TO `admin`;
GRANT STOP ON DATABASE * TO `admin`;
GRANT TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT (*) ON DATABASE * TO `admin`;
GRANT WRITE ON GRAPH * TO `admin`;

Grant the admin user role to an existing user.

Before running the :exit command, grant the newly created role to a user. Although this is optional, without this step you will have only collected all admin privileges in a role that no one is assigned to.

To grant the role to a user (assuming your existing user is named neo4j), you can run GRANT ROLE admin TO neo4j;

Exit the cypher-shell console:
```
:exit;
```
Proceed with the post-recovery steps as per your deployment.

Post-recovery steps

Stop Neo4j:
```
bin/neo4j stop
```
Enable the authentication and restore your Neo4j to its original configuration (See Disable authentication).
Start Neo4j:
```
bin/neo4j start
```

Stop the cluster members.
```
bin/neo4j stop
```
Enable the authentication and restore each cluster member to its original configuration (See Disable authentication).
Start the cluster (all cluster members):
```
bin/neo4j start
```

Glossary

allocator: A component in the cluster that allocates databases to servers according to the topology constraints specified and an allocation strategy.
asynchronous replication: Asynchronous replication is used by secondary copies to poll for new transactions, which means they cannot be guaranteed to have received the most recent transactions. This enables efficient scale-out of read-performance.
Aura instance: A fully-managed DBMS represented by a single instance ID, that is running in the Neo4j Aura cloud.
auto-commit transaction: An automatically committed transaction that contains a single query.
Bolt protocol: Bolt is a protocol used for interaction between Neo4j instances and drivers.
bookmark: A marker the client can request from the cluster to ensure that it is able to read its own writes so that the application’s state is consistent and only databases that have a copy of the bookmark are permitted to respond.
category (Bloom): A category is based on a node label and is defined in a Perspective as a way of visually distinguishing nodes with the same label(s).
causal consistency: All servers in a cluster agree on the order in which transactions take place. The position of a server on the causal chain can be guaranteed using a bookmark.
cluster: A Neo4j DBMS that spans multiple servers working together to increase fault tolerance and/or read scalability. Databases on a cluster may be configured to replicate across servers in the cluster thus achieving read scalability or high availability.
client application: Software that interacts with a Neo4j server.
commit: A commit is the successful completion of a transaction, which ensures durability of any changes made. For more details, visit Operations Manual → Transaction management.
composite database: Composite databases are the means to access partitioned graph data with a single Cypher query.
constraint: Constraints are sets of data modeling rules that ensure the data is consistent and reliable.
Cypher®: Neo4j’s graph query language.
data model: A data model defines how information is organized in a database. A good data model will make querying and understanding your data easier. In Neo4j, the data models have a graph structure.
database: A database is a container used by the DBMS to manage and store graph data. The physical structure of data is controlled by the database.
database vs graph: Databases are the physical containers of graph data. Graphs are the logical structure of data in Neo4j.
Database Management System: Database Management System, or DBMS, capable of managing multiple databases. A DBMS may run on a single server, or span several servers configured as a cluster.
database schema: The prescribed property existence and datatypes for nodes and relationships.
deallocate: An act of removing a database from a server or a server from a cluster without loss of data or reduced fault tolerance.
degree (of a node): The number of relationships of a specific node; loops are counted twice.
disaster recovery: A manual intervention to restore availability of a cluster, or databases within a cluster.
driver: A software library that provides access to Neo4j from a particular programming language.
election: In the event that the Raft leader becomes unresponsive, followers automatically trigger an election and vote for a new leader.
entity: A node or a relationship.
expression (Cypher): A component of a Cypher query which produces values. It may be used in projections, as a predicate, or when setting properties on graph elements.
fabric: Fabric is the architectural design of a unified system that provides a single access point to local or distributed graph data.
fault tolerance: A guarantee that a cluster can maintain a database’s persistence and availability in the event of one or more servers failing.
follower: A primary copy of a database acting as a follower, receives and acknowledges synchronous writes from the leader.
Generative AI (GenAI): A type of artificial intelligence (AI) system that generates text, images, or other media in response to prompts.
graph: A logical representation of a set of nodes where some pairs are connected by relationships.
index: Data structure that improves read performance of a database.
knowledge graph: A specific type of graph that has an organizing principle so that a user (or a computer system) can reason about the underlying data. The organizing principle provides an additional layer of structure that adds context to support knowledge discovery.
label: Marks a node as a member of a named and indexed subset. A node may be assigned zero or more labels.
leader: A single primary copy of a database is designated as the leader. It receives all write transactions from clients and replicates writes synchronously to followers and asynchronously to secondary copies of the database.
main database: In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database(s) containing the user’s data. Can exist in the same Neo4j deployment as the tool asset database.
motif: A description of a specific pattern within a graph.
node: A node represents an entity or discrete object in your graph data model. Nodes can be connected by relationships, hold data in properties, and are classified by labels.
operator: A symbol representing a mathematical or logical operation.
parameter: Named value provided when running a Cypher statement.
path: A sequence of nodes and the relationships connecting them, that does not contain duplicate relationships. Several paths can match a pattern.
pattern: A specific arrangement of nodes and relationships that can be matched in a graph. A pattern follows a motif.
perspective (Bloom): A Perspective defines a certain business view or domain that can be found in the target Neo4j graph. A single Neo4j graph can be viewed through different Perspectives, each tailored for a different business purpose.
primary: A copy of the database that is able to process write transactions and is eligible to be elected as a leader. It participates in fault tolerant writes as it is part of the majority required to acknowledge and commit write transactions.
primary vs secondary: In a cluster, databases can operate in either primary or secondary mode. Primary databases are able to process write and read transactions, ensuring fault tolerance. Secondary databases are replicated asynchronously from primaries, and their main purpose is to provide read scaling within the cluster.
project (Aura): An isolated environment in the unified Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Preceded by tenant in the classic Aura console.
property: Properties are key-value pairs that are used for storing data on nodes and relationships.
query (Cypher): A statement that retrieves or writes information to a database.
Raft group: A group of servers that are participating in hosting a particular database in primary mode.
Raft group member: A server that is participating in a Raft group. A server can be a member of one or more groups.
Raft log: A shared log between all Raft group members that is guaranteed to be consistently updated and viewed by those members. The log contains both database data and operational state of the Raft group.
Raft protocol: The networking mechanism that enables a database to replicate its data across multiple servers to give high availability for accessing the data and high durability to the data stored.
read scaling: Distributing query load by creating additional database copies hosted in secondary mode (read-only).
relationship: A relationship represents a connection between nodes in your graph data model. Relationships connect a source node to a target node, hold data in properties, and are classified by type.
secondary: An asynchronously replicated copy of the database that provides read scaling within the cluster.
seed: A seed is a database dump or a full backup used to create a database on a cluster. This is sometimes called seeding.
server: A physical machine, a virtual machine, or a container running an instance of Neo4j. Servers can be standalone or part of a cluster.
session: A causally linked sequence of transactions.
session consistency: An alternative name for Neo4j’s causal consistency.
standalone: A single server running Neo4j and not part of a cluster.
synchronous replication: Synchronous replication requires the leader primary to replicate a transaction and block the commit until a quorum of the follower primaries acknowledges that the transaction is successfully replicated. Once the transaction is replicated, the commit is allowed to proceed. This ensures data durability and consistency within the cluster.
system database: A database used by Neo4j to store system information.
tenant (Aura): An isolated environment in the classic Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Replaced by project in the unified Aura console.
tool asset database: In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database where tools' assets are stored. This can be in the same Neo4j deployment as the main database(s) or in a separate deployment.
topology: A configuration that describes how the copies of a database should be spread across the servers in a cluster, see primary mode and secondary mode.
transaction: A transaction comprises a unit of work performed against a database. It is treated in a coherent and reliable way, independent of other transactions. Transactions comply with the ACID consistency model (atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable).