that should work as a full import does a alter user username identified by values, and I have taken the hex value passed thru a password cracker and found a password that with the exact same hex value on a different db and it worked. all this is 10g and below, 11g is a different animal with case sensitive password and the such. joe _______________________________________ Joe Testa, Oracle Certified Professional (Work) 614-677-1668 (Cell) 614-312-6715 Interested in helping out your marriage? Ask me about "Weekend to Remember" Dec 11-13, 2009 here in Columbus. From: <genegurevich@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: 06/17/2009 06:21 PM Subject: passwords in different instances Sent by: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Hello: If I have two users existing in two separate databases (10.2.0.3) and these users have the same value in the password column of the dba_users view, does this mean that they have the same passwords? In other words. if I enter the following command: alter user USER1 identified by values 'XXXXXXX' where XXXXXX = select password from dba_users where username = 'USER2' will the USER1 and USER2 have the same passwords? thank you Gene Gurevich Please consider the environment before printing this email. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l