diff --git a/nipap/nipap-passwd b/nipap/nipap-passwd
index d5cfd9a42..c12b03b35 100755
--- a/nipap/nipap-passwd
+++ b/nipap/nipap-passwd
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
             print "The user %s does not exist" % args.user
             sys.exit(2)
         af = nipap.authlib.AuthFactory()
-        auth = af.get_auth(options.username, options.password, "nipap", {})
+        auth = af.get_auth(args.user, args.password, "nipap", {})
         if not auth.authenticate():
             print "The password seems to be wrong"
             sys.exit(2)
diff --git a/nipap/nipap/authlib.py b/nipap/nipap/authlib.py
index 50d90bf4d..9efa6b03d 100644
--- a/nipap/nipap/authlib.py
+++ b/nipap/nipap/authlib.py
@@ -669,6 +669,13 @@ def modify_user(self, username, data):
             Since username is used as primary key and we only have a single
             argument for it we can't modify the username right now.
         """
+        if 'password' in data:
+            # generate salt
+            char_set = string.ascii_letters + string.digits
+            data['pwd_salt'] = ''.join(random.choice(char_set) for x in range(8))
+            data['pwd_hash'] = self._gen_hash(data['password'], data['pwd_salt'])
+            del(data['password'])
+
         sql = "UPDATE user SET "
         sql += ', '.join("%s = ?" % k for k in sorted(data))
         sql += " WHERE username = ?"