What privileges do I need to change the password of sys in an Oracle Database?
You'll need to be connected as a user with the SYSDBA privilege.  Even &quot;alter any user&quot; will not be enough.
SQL&gt; select *
  2  from   session_privs
  3  where  privilege like 'ALTER ANY%';

PRIVILEGE
----------------------------------------
ALTER ANY TABLE
ALTER ANY CLUSTER
ALTER ANY INDEX
ALTER ANY SEQUENCE
ALTER ANY ROLE
ALTER ANY PROCEDURE
ALTER ANY TRIGGER
ALTER ANY MATERIALIZED VIEW
ALTER ANY TYPE
ALTER ANY LIBRARY
ALTER ANY OPERATOR
ALTER ANY INDEXTYPE
ALTER ANY DIMENSION
ALTER ANY OUTLINE
ALTER ANY EVALUATION CONTEXT
ALTER ANY RULE SET
ALTER ANY RULE
ALTER ANY SQL PROFILE
ALTER ANY EDITION
ALTER ANY ASSEMBLY
ALTER ANY MINING MODEL
ALTER ANY CUBE DIMENSION
ALTER ANY CUBE
ALTER ANY SQL TRANSLATION PROFILE
ALTER ANY MEASURE FOLDER
ALTER ANY CUBE BUILD PROCESS
ALTER ANY ATTRIBUTE DIMENSION
ALTER ANY HIERARCHY
ALTER ANY ANALYTIC VIEW

29 rows selected.

SQL&gt; alter user sys identified by newpass;
alter user sys identified by newpass
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01031: insufficient privileges