I setup a new NIS server and put the NIS source files in /var/yp/src/

The command line “passwd” gave me a permission denied when
changing an NIS user’s password.

A restart of yp fixed the problem for me..

Eventually I restarted NIS with:

[bash]
/usr/lib/netsvc/yp/ypstop
/usr/lib/netsvc/yp/ypstart
[/bash]