1 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN">
2 <refentry id="smbpasswd">
5 <refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
6 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
11 <refname>smbpasswd</refname>
12 <refpurpose>change a users SMB password</refpurpose>
17 <command>smbpasswd</command>
18 <arg choice="opt">-a</arg>
19 <arg choice="opt">-x</arg>
20 <arg choice="opt">-d</arg>
21 <arg choice="opt">-e</arg>
22 <arg choice="opt">-D debuglevel</arg>
23 <arg choice="opt">-n</arg>
24 <arg choice="opt">-r <remote machine></arg>
25 <arg choice="opt">-R <name resolve order></arg>
26 <arg choice="opt">-m</arg>
27 <arg choice="opt">-j DOMAIN</arg>
28 <arg choice="opt">-U username</arg>
29 <arg choice="opt">-h</arg>
30 <arg choice="opt">-s</arg>
31 <arg choice="opt">username</arg>
36 <title>DESCRIPTION</title>
38 <para>This tool is part of the <ulink url="samba.7.html">
39 Samba</ulink> suite.</para>
41 <para>The smbpasswd program has several different
42 functions, depending on whether it is run by the <emphasis>root</emphasis>
43 user or not. When run as a normal user it allows the user to change
44 the password used for their SMB sessions on any machines that store
45 SMB passwords. </para>
47 <para>By default (when run with no arguments) it will attempt to
48 change the current users SMB password on the local machine. This is
49 similar to the way the <command>passwd(1)</command> program works.
50 <command>smbpasswd</command> differs from how the passwd program works
51 however in that it is not <emphasis>setuid root</emphasis> but works in
52 a client-server mode and communicates with a locally running
53 <command>smbd(8)</command>. As a consequence in order for this to
54 succeed the smbd daemon must be running on the local machine. On a
55 UNIX machine the encrypted SMB passwords are usually stored in
56 the <filename>smbpasswd(5)</filename> file. </para>
58 <para>When run by an ordinary user with no options. smbpasswd
59 will prompt them for their old smb password and then ask them
60 for their new password twice, to ensure that the new password
61 was typed correctly. No passwords will be echoed on the screen
62 whilst being typed. If you have a blank smb password (specified by
63 the string "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd file) then just press
64 the <Enter> key when asked for your old password. </para>
66 <para>smbpasswd can also be used by a normal user to change their
67 SMB password on remote machines, such as Windows NT Primary Domain
68 Controllers. See the (-r) and -U options below. </para>
70 <para>When run by root, smbpasswd allows new users to be added
71 and deleted in the smbpasswd file, as well as allows changes to
72 the attributes of the user in this file to be made. When run by root,
73 <command>smbpasswd</command> accesses the local smbpasswd file
74 directly, thus enabling changes to be made even if smbd is not
79 <title>OPTIONS</title>
83 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username
84 following should be added to the local smbpasswd file, with the
85 new password typed (type <Enter> for the old password). This
86 option is ignored if the username following already exists in
87 the smbpasswd file and it is treated like a regular change
88 password command. Note that the user to be added must already exist
89 in the system password file (usually <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>)
90 else the request to add the user will fail. </para>
92 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd
93 as root. </para></listitem>
100 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username
101 following should be deleted from the local smbpasswd file.
104 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
105 root.</para></listitem>
112 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
113 should be <constant>disabled</constant> in the local smbpasswd
114 file. This is done by writing a <constant>'D'</constant> flag
115 into the account control space in the smbpasswd file. Once this
116 is done all attempts to authenticate via SMB using this username
119 <para>If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format (pre-Samba 2.0
120 format) there is no space in the users password entry to write
121 this information and so the user is disabled by writing 'X' characters
122 into the password space in the smbpasswd file. See <command>smbpasswd(5)
123 </command> for details on the 'old' and new password file formats.
126 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
127 root.</para></listitem>
133 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
134 should be <constant>enabled</constant> in the local smbpasswd file,
135 if the account was previously disabled. If the account was not
136 disabled this option has no effect. Once the account is enabled then
137 the user will be able to authenticate via SMB once again. </para>
139 <para>If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format, then <command>
140 smbpasswd</command> will prompt for a new password for this user,
141 otherwise the account will be enabled by removing the <constant>'D'
142 </constant> flag from account control space in the <filename>
143 smbpasswd</filename> file. See <command>smbpasswd (5)</command> for
144 details on the 'old' and new password file formats. </para>
146 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
153 <term>-D debuglevel</term>
154 <listitem><para><parameter>debuglevel</parameter> is an integer
155 from 0 to 10. The default value if this parameter is not specified
158 <para>The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the
159 log files about the activities of smbpasswd. At level 0, only
160 critical errors and serious warnings will be logged. </para>
162 <para>Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log
163 data, and should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels
164 above 3 are designed for use only by developers and generate
165 HUGE amounts of log data, most of which is extremely cryptic.
173 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
174 should have their password set to null (i.e. a blank password) in
175 the local smbpasswd file. This is done by writing the string "NO
176 PASSWORD" as the first part of the first password stored in the
177 smbpasswd file. </para>
179 <para>Note that to allow users to logon to a Samba server once
180 the password has been set to "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd
181 file the administrator must set the following parameter in the [global]
182 section of the <filename>smb.conf</filename> file : </para>
184 <para><command>null passwords = yes</command></para>
186 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
187 root.</para></listitem>
193 <term>-r remote machine name</term>
194 <listitem><para>This option allows a user to specify what machine
195 they wish to change their password on. Without this parameter
196 smbpasswd defaults to the local host. The <replaceable>remote
197 machine name</replaceable> is the NetBIOS name of the SMB/CIFS
198 server to contact to attempt the password change. This name is
199 resolved into an IP address using the standard name resolution
200 mechanism in all programs of the Samba suite. See the <parameter>-R
201 name resolve order</parameter> parameter for details on changing
202 this resolving mechanism. </para>
204 <para>The username whose password is changed is that of the
205 current UNIX logged on user. See the <parameter>-U username</parameter>
206 parameter for details on changing the password for a different
209 <para>Note that if changing a Windows NT Domain password the
210 remote machine specified must be the Primary Domain Controller for
211 the domain (Backup Domain Controllers only have a read-only
212 copy of the user account database and will not allow the password
215 <para><emphasis>Note</emphasis> that Windows 95/98 do not have
216 a real password database so it is not possible to change passwords
217 specifying a Win95/98 machine as remote machine target. </para>
223 <term>-R name resolve order</term>
224 <listitem><para>This option allows the user of smbclient to determine
225 what name resolution services to use when looking up the NetBIOS
226 name of the host being connected to. </para>
228 <para>The options are :"lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast". They cause
229 names to be resolved as follows : </para>
231 <listitem><para><constant>lmhosts</constant> : Lookup an IP
232 address in the Samba lmhosts file. If the line in lmhosts has
233 no name type attached to the NetBIOS name (see the <ulink
234 url="lmhosts.5.html">lmhosts(5)</ulink> for details) then
235 any name type matches for lookup.</para></listitem>
237 <listitem><para><constant>host</constant> : Do a standard host
238 name to IP address resolution, using the system <filename>/etc/hosts
239 </filename>, NIS, or DNS lookups. This method of name resolution
240 is operating system depended for instance on IRIX or Solaris this
241 may be controlled by the <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf</filename>
242 file). Note that this method is only used if the NetBIOS name
243 type being queried is the 0x20 (server) name type, otherwise
244 it is ignored.</para></listitem>
246 <listitem><para><constant>wins</constant> : Query a name with
247 the IP address listed in the <parameter>wins server</parameter>
248 parameter. If no WINS server has been specified this method
249 will be ignored.</para></listitem>
251 <listitem><para><constant>bcast</constant> : Do a broadcast on
252 each of the known local interfaces listed in the
253 <parameter>interfaces</parameter> parameter. This is the least
254 reliable of the name resolution methods as it depends on the
255 target host being on a locally connected subnet.</para></listitem>
258 <para>The default order is <command>lmhosts, host, wins, bcast</command>
259 and without this parameter or any entry in the
260 <filename>smb.conf</filename> file the name resolution methods will
261 be attempted in this order. </para></listitem>
267 <listitem><para>This option tells smbpasswd that the account
268 being changed is a MACHINE account. Currently this is used
269 when Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller.</para>
271 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
277 <term>-j DOMAIN</term>
278 <listitem><para>This option is used to add a Samba server
279 into a Windows NT Domain, as a Domain member capable of authenticating
280 user accounts to any Domain Controller in the same way as a Windows
281 NT Server. See the <command>security = domain</command> option in
282 the <filename>smb.conf(5)</filename> man page. </para>
284 <para>In order to be used in this way, the Administrator for
285 the Windows NT Domain must have used the program "Server Manager
286 for Domains" to add the primary NetBIOS name of the Samba server
287 as a member of the Domain. </para>
289 <para>After this has been done, to join the Domain invoke <command>
290 smbpasswd</command> with this parameter. smbpasswd will then
291 look up the Primary Domain Controller for the Domain (found in
292 the <filename>smb.conf</filename> file in the parameter
293 <parameter>password server</parameter> and change the machine account
294 password used to create the secure Domain communication. This
295 password is then stored by smbpasswd in a TDB, writeable only by root,
296 called <filename>secrets.tdb</filename> </para>
298 <para>Once this operation has been performed the <filename>
299 smb.conf</filename> file may be updated to set the <command>
300 security = domain</command> option and all future logins
301 to the Samba server will be authenticated to the Windows NT
304 <para>Note that even though the authentication is being
305 done to the PDC all users accessing the Samba server must still
306 have a valid UNIX account on that machine. </para>
309 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
316 <term>-U username</term>
317 <listitem><para>This option may only be used in conjunction
318 with the <parameter>-r</parameter> option. When changing
319 a password on a remote machine it allows the user to specify
320 the user name on that machine whose password will be changed. It
321 is present to allow users who have different user names on
322 different systems to change these passwords. </para></listitem>
328 <listitem><para>This option prints the help string for <command>
329 smbpasswd</command>, selecting the correct one for running as root
330 or as an ordinary user. </para></listitem>
337 <listitem><para>This option causes smbpasswd to be silent (i.e.
338 not issue prompts) and to read it's old and new passwords from
339 standard input, rather than from <filename>/dev/tty</filename>
340 (like the <command>passwd(1)</command> program does). This option
341 is to aid people writing scripts to drive smbpasswd</para>
348 <term>username</term>
349 <listitem><para>This specifies the username for all of the
350 <emphasis>root only</emphasis> options to operate on. Only root
351 can specify this parameter as only root has the permission needed
352 to modify attributes directly in the local smbpasswd file.
362 <para>Since <command>smbpasswd</command> works in client-server
363 mode communicating with a local smbd for a non-root user then
364 the smbd daemon must be running for this to work. A common problem
365 is to add a restriction to the hosts that may access the <command>
366 smbd</command> running on the local machine by specifying a
367 <parameter>allow hosts</parameter> or <parameter>deny hosts</parameter>
368 entry in the <filename>smb.conf</filename> file and neglecting to
369 allow "localhost" access to the smbd. </para>
371 <para>In addition, the smbpasswd command is only useful if Samba
372 has been set up to use encrypted passwords. See the file
373 <filename>ENCRYPTION.txt</filename> in the docs directory for details
374 on how to do this. </para>
379 <title>VERSION</title>
381 <para>This man page is correct for version 2.2 of
382 the Samba suite.</para>
386 <title>SEE ALSO</title>
387 <para><ulink url="smbpasswd.5.html"><filename>smbpasswd(5)</filename></ulink>,
388 <ulink url="samba.7.html">samba(7)</ulink>
393 <title>AUTHOR</title>
395 <para>The original Samba software and related utilities
396 were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed
397 by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar
398 to the way the Linux kernel is developed.</para>
400 <para>The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer.
401 The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
402 excellent piece of Open Source software, available at
403 <ulink url="ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/">
404 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/</ulink>) and updated for the Samba 2.0
405 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to DocBook for
406 Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter</para>
git.samba.org / samba.git / blob