diff --git a/bin/passwd.sh b/bin/passwd.sh
index 45335853e..39640bc05 100755
--- a/bin/passwd.sh
+++ b/bin/passwd.sh
@@ -1,12 +1,34 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env sh
 cd "`dirname $0`"
+. ./checkDataFolder.sh
+. ./checkConfFile.sh
+
+echo "Setting new YaCy administrator password..."
+
+# take the administrator user name from the config file
+YACY_ADMIN_USER_NAME=$(grep ^adminAccountUserName= "$YACY_DATA_PATH/SETTINGS/yacy.conf" | cut -d= -f2 | tr -d '\r\n')
+
+if [ -z "$YACY_ADMIN_USER_NAME" ]; then 
+	# administrator user name should not be empty : by the way, in that case use the same default value as in YaCy application
+	YACY_ADMIN_USER_NAME="admin"
+fi
 
 if [ -z "$1" ]; then
-	echo "Usage : ./passwd.sh NEW_PASSWORD"
-	exit 2
+	printf "Please enter the new password for user '$YACY_ADMIN_USER_NAME' :"
+	stty -echo # Do not echo typed characters when typing password
+	read YACY_ADMIN_PASSWORD
+	stty echo # Restore echo
+	printf "\n"
+else
+	YACY_ADMIN_PASSWORD="$1"
+fi
+
+if [ ${#YACY_ADMIN_PASSWORD} -le 2 ]; then
+	echo "Please enter a password with more than 2 characters."
+	exit 1
 fi
 
-(./protectedPostApiCall.sh "ConfigAccounts_p.html" "setAdmin=&adminuser=admin&adminpw1=$1&adminpw2=$1&access=" && \
-echo "Password for User Name 'admin' set to '$1'") || \
-(echo "Password setting failed" && \
+(./protectedPostApiCall.sh "ConfigAccounts_p.html" "setAdmin=&adminuser=$YACY_ADMIN_USER_NAME&adminpw1=$YACY_ADMIN_PASSWORD&adminpw2=$YACY_ADMIN_PASSWORD&access=" && \
+echo "Password successfully changed for User Name '$YACY_ADMIN_USER_NAME'.") || \
+(echo "Password setting failed." && \
 exit 1)
\ No newline at end of file