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2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
4 <!ENTITY % globalentities SYSTEM '../entities/global.entities'> %globalentities;
6 <refentry id="smbpasswd.8">
9 <refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
10 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
15 <refname>smbpasswd</refname>
16 <refpurpose>change a user's SMB password</refpurpose>
21 <command>smbpasswd</command>
22 <arg choice="opt">-a</arg>
23 <arg choice="opt">-x</arg>
24 <arg choice="opt">-d</arg>
25 <arg choice="opt">-e</arg>
26 <arg choice="opt">-D debuglevel</arg>
27 <arg choice="opt">-n</arg>
28 <arg choice="opt">-r <remote machine></arg>
29 <arg choice="opt">-R <name resolve order></arg>
30 <arg choice="opt">-m</arg>
31 <arg choice="opt">-U username[%password]</arg>
32 <arg choice="opt">-h</arg>
33 <arg choice="opt">-s</arg>
34 <arg choice="opt">-w pass</arg>
35 <arg choice="opt">-i</arg>
36 <arg choice="opt">-L</arg>
37 <arg choice="opt">username</arg>
42 <title>DESCRIPTION</title>
44 <para>This tool is part of the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>Samba</refentrytitle>
45 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> suite.</para>
47 <para>The smbpasswd program has several different
48 functions, depending on whether it is run by the <emphasis>root</emphasis> user
49 or not. When run as a normal user it allows the user to change
50 the password used for their SMB sessions on any machines that store
51 SMB passwords. </para>
53 <para>By default (when run with no arguments) it will attempt to
54 change the current user's SMB password on the local machine. This is
55 similar to the way the <command>passwd(1)</command> program works. <command>
56 smbpasswd</command> differs from how the passwd program works
57 however in that it is not <emphasis>setuid root</emphasis> but works in
58 a client-server mode and communicates with a
59 locally running <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbd</refentrytitle>
60 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>. As a consequence in order for this to
61 succeed the smbd daemon must be running on the local machine. On a
62 UNIX machine the encrypted SMB passwords are usually stored in
63 the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
64 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file. </para>
66 <para>When run by an ordinary user with no options, smbpasswd
67 will prompt them for their old SMB password and then ask them
68 for their new password twice, to ensure that the new password
69 was typed correctly. No passwords will be echoed on the screen
70 whilst being typed. If you have a blank SMB password (specified by
71 the string "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd file) then just press
72 the <Enter> key when asked for your old password. </para>
74 <para>smbpasswd can also be used by a normal user to change their
75 SMB password on remote machines, such as Windows NT Primary Domain
76 Controllers. See the (<parameter>-r</parameter>) and <parameter>-U</parameter> options
79 <para>When run by root, smbpasswd allows new users to be added
80 and deleted in the smbpasswd file, as well as allows changes to
81 the attributes of the user in this file to be made. When run by root, <command>
82 smbpasswd</command> accesses the local smbpasswd file
83 directly, thus enabling changes to be made even if smbd is not
88 <title>OPTIONS</title>
92 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username
93 following should be added to the local smbpasswd file, with the
94 new password typed (type <Enter> for the old password). This
95 option is ignored if the username following already exists in
96 the smbpasswd file and it is treated like a regular change
97 password command. Note that the default passdb backends require
98 the user to already exist in the system password file (usually
99 <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>), else the request to add the
100 user will fail. </para>
102 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd
103 as root. </para></listitem>
110 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username
111 following should be deleted from the local smbpasswd file.
114 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
115 root.</para></listitem>
122 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
123 should be <constant>disabled</constant> in the local smbpasswd
124 file. This is done by writing a <constant>'D'</constant> flag
125 into the account control space in the smbpasswd file. Once this
126 is done all attempts to authenticate via SMB using this username
129 <para>If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format (pre-Samba 2.0
130 format) there is no space in the user's password entry to write
131 this information and the command will FAIL. See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
132 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details on the 'old' and new password file formats.
135 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
136 root.</para></listitem>
142 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
143 should be <constant>enabled</constant> in the local smbpasswd file,
144 if the account was previously disabled. If the account was not
145 disabled this option has no effect. Once the account is enabled then
146 the user will be able to authenticate via SMB once again. </para>
148 <para>If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format, then <command>
149 smbpasswd</command> will FAIL to enable the account.
150 See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
151 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
152 details on the 'old' and new password file formats. </para>
154 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
161 <term>-D debuglevel</term>
162 <listitem><para><replaceable>debuglevel</replaceable> is an integer
163 from 0 to 10. The default value if this parameter is not specified
166 <para>The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the
167 log files about the activities of smbpasswd. At level 0, only
168 critical errors and serious warnings will be logged. </para>
170 <para>Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log
171 data, and should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels
172 above 3 are designed for use only by developers and generate
173 HUGE amounts of log data, most of which is extremely cryptic.
181 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
182 should have their password set to null (i.e. a blank password) in
183 the local smbpasswd file. This is done by writing the string "NO
184 PASSWORD" as the first part of the first password stored in the
185 smbpasswd file. </para>
187 <para>Note that to allow users to logon to a Samba server once
188 the password has been set to "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd
189 file the administrator must set the following parameter in the [global]
190 section of the <filename>smb.conf</filename> file : </para>
192 <para><command>null passwords = yes</command></para>
194 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
195 root.</para></listitem>
201 <term>-r remote machine name</term>
202 <listitem><para>This option allows a user to specify what machine
203 they wish to change their password on. Without this parameter
204 smbpasswd defaults to the local host. The <replaceable>remote
205 machine name</replaceable> is the NetBIOS name of the SMB/CIFS
206 server to contact to attempt the password change. This name is
207 resolved into an IP address using the standard name resolution
208 mechanism in all programs of the Samba suite. See the <parameter>-R
209 name resolve order</parameter> parameter for details on changing
210 this resolving mechanism. </para>
212 <para>The username whose password is changed is that of the
213 current UNIX logged on user. See the <parameter>-U username</parameter>
214 parameter for details on changing the password for a different
217 <para>Note that if changing a Windows NT Domain password the
218 remote machine specified must be the Primary Domain Controller for
219 the domain (Backup Domain Controllers only have a read-only
220 copy of the user account database and will not allow the password
223 <para><emphasis>Note</emphasis> that Windows 95/98 do not have
224 a real password database so it is not possible to change passwords
225 specifying a Win95/98 machine as remote machine target. </para>
231 <term>-R name resolve order</term>
232 <listitem><para>This option allows the user of smbpasswd to determine
233 what name resolution services to use when looking up the NetBIOS
234 name of the host being connected to. </para>
236 <para>The options are :"lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast". They
237 cause names to be resolved as follows: </para>
239 <listitem><para><constant>lmhosts</constant>: Lookup an IP
240 address in the Samba lmhosts file. If the line in lmhosts has
241 no name type attached to the NetBIOS name (see the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>lmhosts</refentrytitle>
242 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details) then
243 any name type matches for lookup.</para></listitem>
245 <listitem><para><constant>host</constant>: Do a standard host
246 name to IP address resolution, using the system <filename>/etc/hosts
247 </filename>, NIS, or DNS lookups. This method of name resolution
248 is operating system depended for instance on IRIX or Solaris this
249 may be controlled by the <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf</filename>
250 file). Note that this method is only used if the NetBIOS name
251 type being queried is the 0x20 (server) name type, otherwise
252 it is ignored.</para></listitem>
254 <listitem><para><constant>wins</constant>: Query a name with
255 the IP address listed in the <parameter>wins server</parameter>
256 parameter. If no WINS server has been specified this method
257 will be ignored.</para></listitem>
259 <listitem><para><constant>bcast</constant>: Do a broadcast on
260 each of the known local interfaces listed in the
261 <parameter>interfaces</parameter> parameter. This is the least
262 reliable of the name resolution methods as it depends on the
263 target host being on a locally connected subnet.</para></listitem>
266 <para>The default order is <command>lmhosts, host, wins, bcast</command>
267 and without this parameter or any entry in the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
268 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file the name resolution methods will
269 be attempted in this order. </para></listitem>
275 <listitem><para>This option tells smbpasswd that the account
276 being changed is a MACHINE account. Currently this is used
277 when Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller.</para>
279 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
285 <term>-U username</term>
286 <listitem><para>This option may only be used in conjunction
287 with the <parameter>-r</parameter> option. When changing
288 a password on a remote machine it allows the user to specify
289 the user name on that machine whose password will be changed. It
290 is present to allow users who have different user names on
291 different systems to change these passwords. </para></listitem>
297 <listitem><para>This option prints the help string for <command>
298 smbpasswd</command>, selecting the correct one for running as root
299 or as an ordinary user. </para></listitem>
305 <listitem><para>This option causes smbpasswd to be silent (i.e.
306 not issue prompts) and to read its old and new passwords from
307 standard input, rather than from <filename>/dev/tty</filename>
308 (like the <command>passwd(1)</command> program does). This option
309 is to aid people writing scripts to drive smbpasswd</para>
315 <term>-w password</term>
316 <listitem><para>This parameter is only available if Samba
317 has been configured to use the experimental
318 <command>--with-ldapsam</command> option. The <parameter>-w</parameter>
319 switch is used to specify the password to be used with the
320 <smbconfoption><name>ldap admin dn</name></smbconfoption>. Note that the password is stored in
321 the <filename>secrets.tdb</filename> and is keyed off
322 of the admin's DN. This means that if the value of <parameter>ldap
323 admin dn</parameter> ever changes, the password will need to be
324 manually updated as well.
331 <listitem><para>This option tells smbpasswd that the account
332 being changed is an interdomain trust account. Currently this is used
333 when Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller.
334 The account contains the info about another trusted domain.</para>
336 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
342 <listitem><para>Run in local mode.</para></listitem>
346 <term>username</term>
347 <listitem><para>This specifies the username for all of the
348 <emphasis>root only</emphasis> options to operate on. Only root
349 can specify this parameter as only root has the permission needed
350 to modify attributes directly in the local smbpasswd file.
360 <para>Since <command>smbpasswd</command> works in client-server
361 mode communicating with a local smbd for a non-root user then
362 the smbd daemon must be running for this to work. A common problem
363 is to add a restriction to the hosts that may access the <command>
364 smbd</command> running on the local machine by specifying either <parameter>allow
365 hosts</parameter> or <parameter>deny hosts</parameter> entry in
366 the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
367 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file and neglecting to
368 allow "localhost" access to the smbd. </para>
370 <para>In addition, the smbpasswd command is only useful if Samba
371 has been set up to use encrypted passwords. </para>
376 <title>VERSION</title>
378 <para>This man page is correct for version 3.0 of the Samba suite.</para>
382 <title>SEE ALSO</title>
383 <para><citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
384 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>Samba</refentrytitle>
385 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
389 <title>AUTHOR</title>
391 <para>The original Samba software and related utilities
392 were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed
393 by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar
394 to the way the Linux kernel is developed.</para>
396 <para>The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer.
397 The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
398 excellent piece of Open Source software, available at <ulink url="ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/">
399 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/</ulink>) and updated for the Samba 2.0
400 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to DocBook for
401 Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to DocBook XML 4.2
402 for Samba 3.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy.</para>