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 user's 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[%password]</arg>
29 <arg choice="opt">-h</arg>
30 <arg choice="opt">-s</arg>
31 <arg choice="opt">-w pass</arg>
32 <arg choice="opt">username</arg>
37 <title>DESCRIPTION</title>
39 <para>This tool is part of the <ulink url="samba.7.html">
40 Samba</ulink> suite.</para>
42 <para>The smbpasswd program has several different
43 functions, depending on whether it is run by the <emphasis>root</emphasis>
44 user or not. When run as a normal user it allows the user to change
45 the password used for their SMB sessions on any machines that store
46 SMB passwords. </para>
48 <para>By default (when run with no arguments) it will attempt to
49 change the current user's SMB password on the local machine. This is
50 similar to the way the <command>passwd(1)</command> program works.
51 <command>smbpasswd</command> differs from how the passwd program works
52 however in that it is not <emphasis>setuid root</emphasis> but works in
53 a client-server mode and communicates with a locally running
54 <command>smbd(8)</command>. As a consequence in order for this to
55 succeed the smbd daemon must be running on the local machine. On a
56 UNIX machine the encrypted SMB passwords are usually stored in
57 the <filename>smbpasswd(5)</filename> file. </para>
59 <para>When run by an ordinary user with no options. smbpasswd
60 will prompt them for their old SMB password and then ask them
61 for their new password twice, to ensure that the new password
62 was typed correctly. No passwords will be echoed on the screen
63 whilst being typed. If you have a blank SMB password (specified by
64 the string "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd file) then just press
65 the <Enter> key when asked for your old password. </para>
67 <para>smbpasswd can also be used by a normal user to change their
68 SMB password on remote machines, such as Windows NT Primary Domain
69 Controllers. See the (-r) and -U options below. </para>
71 <para>When run by root, smbpasswd allows new users to be added
72 and deleted in the smbpasswd file, as well as allows changes to
73 the attributes of the user in this file to be made. When run by root,
74 <command>smbpasswd</command> accesses the local smbpasswd file
75 directly, thus enabling changes to be made even if smbd is not
80 <title>OPTIONS</title>
84 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username
85 following should be added to the local smbpasswd file, with the
86 new password typed (type <Enter> for the old password). This
87 option is ignored if the username following already exists in
88 the smbpasswd file and it is treated like a regular change
89 password command. Note that the default passdb backends require
90 the user to already exist in the system password file (usually
91 <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>), else the request to add the
92 user will fail. </para>
94 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd
95 as root. </para></listitem>
102 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username
103 following should be deleted from the local smbpasswd file.
106 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
107 root.</para></listitem>
114 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
115 should be <constant>disabled</constant> in the local smbpasswd
116 file. This is done by writing a <constant>'D'</constant> flag
117 into the account control space in the smbpasswd file. Once this
118 is done all attempts to authenticate via SMB using this username
121 <para>If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format (pre-Samba 2.0
122 format) there is no space in the user's password entry to write
123 this information and the command will FAIL. See <command>smbpasswd(5)
124 </command> for details on the 'old' and new password file formats.
127 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
128 root.</para></listitem>
134 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
135 should be <constant>enabled</constant> in the local smbpasswd file,
136 if the account was previously disabled. If the account was not
137 disabled this option has no effect. Once the account is enabled then
138 the user will be able to authenticate via SMB once again. </para>
140 <para>If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format, then <command>
141 smbpasswd</command> will FAIL to enable the account.
142 See <command>smbpasswd (5)</command> for
143 details on the 'old' and new password file formats. </para>
145 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
152 <term>-D debuglevel</term>
153 <listitem><para><replaceable>debuglevel</replaceable> is an integer
154 from 0 to 10. The default value if this parameter is not specified
157 <para>The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the
158 log files about the activities of smbpasswd. At level 0, only
159 critical errors and serious warnings will be logged. </para>
161 <para>Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log
162 data, and should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels
163 above 3 are designed for use only by developers and generate
164 HUGE amounts of log data, most of which is extremely cryptic.
172 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
173 should have their password set to null (i.e. a blank password) in
174 the local smbpasswd file. This is done by writing the string "NO
175 PASSWORD" as the first part of the first password stored in the
176 smbpasswd file. </para>
178 <para>Note that to allow users to logon to a Samba server once
179 the password has been set to "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd
180 file the administrator must set the following parameter in the [global]
181 section of the <filename>smb.conf</filename> file : </para>
183 <para><command>null passwords = yes</command></para>
185 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
186 root.</para></listitem>
192 <term>-r remote machine name</term>
193 <listitem><para>This option allows a user to specify what machine
194 they wish to change their password on. Without this parameter
195 smbpasswd defaults to the local host. The <replaceable>remote
196 machine name</replaceable> is the NetBIOS name of the SMB/CIFS
197 server to contact to attempt the password change. This name is
198 resolved into an IP address using the standard name resolution
199 mechanism in all programs of the Samba suite. See the <parameter>-R
200 name resolve order</parameter> parameter for details on changing
201 this resolving mechanism. </para>
203 <para>The username whose password is changed is that of the
204 current UNIX logged on user. See the <parameter>-U username</parameter>
205 parameter for details on changing the password for a different
208 <para>Note that if changing a Windows NT Domain password the
209 remote machine specified must be the Primary Domain Controller for
210 the domain (Backup Domain Controllers only have a read-only
211 copy of the user account database and will not allow the password
214 <para><emphasis>Note</emphasis> that Windows 95/98 do not have
215 a real password database so it is not possible to change passwords
216 specifying a Win95/98 machine as remote machine target. </para>
222 <term>-R name resolve order</term>
223 <listitem><para>This option allows the user of smbpasswd to determine
224 what name resolution services to use when looking up the NetBIOS
225 name of the host being connected to. </para>
227 <para>The options are :"lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast". They cause
228 names to be resolved as follows : </para>
230 <listitem><para><constant>lmhosts</constant> : Lookup an IP
231 address in the Samba lmhosts file. If the line in lmhosts has
232 no name type attached to the NetBIOS name (see the <ulink
233 url="lmhosts.5.html">lmhosts(5)</ulink> for details) then
234 any name type matches for lookup.</para></listitem>
236 <listitem><para><constant>host</constant> : Do a standard host
237 name to IP address resolution, using the system <filename>/etc/hosts
238 </filename>, NIS, or DNS lookups. This method of name resolution
239 is operating system depended for instance on IRIX or Solaris this
240 may be controlled by the <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf</filename>
241 file). Note that this method is only used if the NetBIOS name
242 type being queried is the 0x20 (server) name type, otherwise
243 it is ignored.</para></listitem>
245 <listitem><para><constant>wins</constant> : Query a name with
246 the IP address listed in the <parameter>wins server</parameter>
247 parameter. If no WINS server has been specified this method
248 will be ignored.</para></listitem>
250 <listitem><para><constant>bcast</constant> : Do a broadcast on
251 each of the known local interfaces listed in the
252 <parameter>interfaces</parameter> parameter. This is the least
253 reliable of the name resolution methods as it depends on the
254 target host being on a locally connected subnet.</para></listitem>
257 <para>The default order is <command>lmhosts, host, wins, bcast</command>
258 and without this parameter or any entry in the
259 <filename>smb.conf</filename> file the name resolution methods will
260 be attempted in this order. </para></listitem>
266 <listitem><para>This option tells smbpasswd that the account
267 being changed is a MACHINE account. Currently this is used
268 when Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller.</para>
270 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
276 <term>-U username</term>
277 <listitem><para>This option may only be used in conjunction
278 with the <parameter>-r</parameter> option. When changing
279 a password on a remote machine it allows the user to specify
280 the user name on that machine whose password will be changed. It
281 is present to allow users who have different user names on
282 different systems to change these passwords. </para></listitem>
288 <listitem><para>This option prints the help string for <command>
289 smbpasswd</command>, selecting the correct one for running as root
290 or as an ordinary user. </para></listitem>
297 <listitem><para>This option causes smbpasswd to be silent (i.e.
298 not issue prompts) and to read its old and new passwords from
299 standard input, rather than from <filename>/dev/tty</filename>
300 (like the <command>passwd(1)</command> program does). This option
301 is to aid people writing scripts to drive smbpasswd</para>
307 <term>-w password</term>
308 <listitem><para>This parameter is only available is Samba
309 has been configured to use the experiemental
310 <command>--with-ldapsam</command> option. The <parameter>-w</parameter>
311 switch is used to specify the password to be used with the
312 <ulink url="smb.conf.5.html#LDAPADMINDN"><parameter>ldap admin
313 dn</parameter></ulink>. Note that the password is stored in
314 the <filename>private/secrets.tdb</filename> and is keyed off
315 of the admin's DN. This means that if the value of <parameter>ldap
316 admin dn</parameter> ever changes, the password will beed to be
317 manually updated as well.
324 <term>username</term>
325 <listitem><para>This specifies the username for all of the
326 <emphasis>root only</emphasis> options to operate on. Only root
327 can specify this parameter as only root has the permission needed
328 to modify attributes directly in the local smbpasswd file.
338 <para>Since <command>smbpasswd</command> works in client-server
339 mode communicating with a local smbd for a non-root user then
340 the smbd daemon must be running for this to work. A common problem
341 is to add a restriction to the hosts that may access the <command>
342 smbd</command> running on the local machine by specifying a
343 <parameter>allow hosts</parameter> or <parameter>deny hosts</parameter>
344 entry in the <filename>smb.conf</filename> file and neglecting to
345 allow "localhost" access to the smbd. </para>
347 <para>In addition, the smbpasswd command is only useful if Samba
348 has been set up to use encrypted passwords. See the file
349 <filename>ENCRYPTION.txt</filename> in the docs directory for details
350 on how to do this. </para>
355 <title>VERSION</title>
357 <para>This man page is correct for version 3.0 of
358 the Samba suite.</para>
362 <title>SEE ALSO</title>
363 <para><ulink url="smbpasswd.5.html"><filename>smbpasswd(5)</filename></ulink>,
364 <ulink url="samba.7.html">samba(7)</ulink>
369 <title>AUTHOR</title>
371 <para>The original Samba software and related utilities
372 were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed
373 by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar
374 to the way the Linux kernel is developed.</para>
376 <para>The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer.
377 The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
378 excellent piece of Open Source software, available at
379 <ulink url="ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/">
380 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/</ulink>) and updated for the Samba 2.0
381 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to DocBook for
382 Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter</para>