1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//Samba-Team//DTD DocBook V4.2-Based Variant V1.0//EN" "http://www.samba.org/samba/DTD/samba-doc">
3 <refentry id="smbpasswd.8">
6 <refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
7 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
12 <refname>smbpasswd</refname>
13 <refpurpose>change a user's SMB password</refpurpose>
18 <command>smbpasswd</command>
19 <arg choice="opt">-a</arg>
20 <arg choice="opt">-x</arg>
21 <arg choice="opt">-d</arg>
22 <arg choice="opt">-e</arg>
23 <arg choice="opt">-D debuglevel</arg>
24 <arg choice="opt">-n</arg>
25 <arg choice="opt">-r <remote machine></arg>
26 <arg choice="opt">-R <name resolve order></arg>
27 <arg choice="opt">-m</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">-i</arg>
33 <arg choice="opt">-L</arg>
34 <arg choice="opt">username</arg>
39 <title>DESCRIPTION</title>
41 <para>This tool is part of the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>samba</refentrytitle>
42 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> suite.</para>
44 <para>The smbpasswd program has several different
45 functions, depending on whether it is run by the <emphasis>root</emphasis> user
46 or not. When run as a normal user it allows the user to change
47 the password used for their SMB sessions on any machines that store
48 SMB passwords. </para>
50 <para>By default (when run with no arguments) it will attempt to
51 change the current user's SMB password on the local machine. This is
52 similar to the way the <command>passwd(1)</command> program works. <command>
53 smbpasswd</command> differs from how the passwd program works
54 however in that it is not <emphasis>setuid root</emphasis> but works in
55 a client-server mode and communicates with a
56 locally running <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbd</refentrytitle>
57 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>. As a consequence in order for this to
58 succeed the smbd daemon must be running on the local machine. On a
59 UNIX machine the encrypted SMB passwords are usually stored in
60 the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
61 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file. </para>
63 <para>When run by an ordinary user with no options, smbpasswd
64 will prompt them for their old SMB password and then ask them
65 for their new password twice, to ensure that the new password
66 was typed correctly. No passwords will be echoed on the screen
67 whilst being typed. If you have a blank SMB password (specified by
68 the string "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd file) then just press
69 the <Enter> key when asked for your old password. </para>
71 <para>smbpasswd can also be used by a normal user to change their
72 SMB password on remote machines, such as Windows NT Primary Domain
73 Controllers. See the (<parameter>-r</parameter>) and <parameter>-U</parameter> options
76 <para>When run by root, smbpasswd allows new users to be added
77 and deleted in the smbpasswd file, as well as allows changes to
78 the attributes of the user in this file to be made. When run by root, <command>
79 smbpasswd</command> accesses the local smbpasswd file
80 directly, thus enabling changes to be made even if smbd is not
85 <title>OPTIONS</title>
89 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username
90 following should be added to the local smbpasswd file, with the
91 new password typed (type <Enter> for the old password). This
92 option is ignored if the username following already exists in
93 the smbpasswd file and it is treated like a regular change
94 password command. Note that the default passdb backends require
95 the user to already exist in the system password file (usually
96 <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>), else the request to add the
97 user will fail. </para>
99 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd
100 as root. </para></listitem>
107 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username
108 following should be deleted from the local smbpasswd file.
111 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
112 root.</para></listitem>
119 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
120 should be <constant>disabled</constant> in the local smbpasswd
121 file. This is done by writing a <constant>'D'</constant> flag
122 into the account control space in the smbpasswd file. Once this
123 is done all attempts to authenticate via SMB using this username
126 <para>If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format (pre-Samba 2.0
127 format) there is no space in the user's password entry to write
128 this information and the command will FAIL. See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
129 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details on the 'old' and new password file formats.
132 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
133 root.</para></listitem>
139 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
140 should be <constant>enabled</constant> in the local smbpasswd file,
141 if the account was previously disabled. If the account was not
142 disabled this option has no effect. Once the account is enabled then
143 the user will be able to authenticate via SMB once again. </para>
145 <para>If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format, then <command>
146 smbpasswd</command> will FAIL to enable the account.
147 See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
148 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
149 details on the 'old' and new password file formats. </para>
151 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
158 <term>-D debuglevel</term>
159 <listitem><para><replaceable>debuglevel</replaceable> is an integer
160 from 0 to 10. The default value if this parameter is not specified
163 <para>The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the
164 log files about the activities of smbpasswd. At level 0, only
165 critical errors and serious warnings will be logged. </para>
167 <para>Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log
168 data, and should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels
169 above 3 are designed for use only by developers and generate
170 HUGE amounts of log data, most of which is extremely cryptic.
178 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
179 should have their password set to null (i.e. a blank password) in
180 the local smbpasswd file. This is done by writing the string "NO
181 PASSWORD" as the first part of the first password stored in the
182 smbpasswd file. </para>
184 <para>Note that to allow users to logon to a Samba server once
185 the password has been set to "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd
186 file the administrator must set the following parameter in the [global]
187 section of the <filename>smb.conf</filename> file : </para>
189 <para><command>null passwords = yes</command></para>
191 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
192 root.</para></listitem>
198 <term>-r remote machine name</term>
199 <listitem><para>This option allows a user to specify what machine
200 they wish to change their password on. Without this parameter
201 smbpasswd defaults to the local host. The <replaceable>remote
202 machine name</replaceable> is the NetBIOS name of the SMB/CIFS
203 server to contact to attempt the password change. This name is
204 resolved into an IP address using the standard name resolution
205 mechanism in all programs of the Samba suite. See the <parameter>-R
206 name resolve order</parameter> parameter for details on changing
207 this resolving mechanism. </para>
209 <para>The username whose password is changed is that of the
210 current UNIX logged on user. See the <parameter>-U username</parameter>
211 parameter for details on changing the password for a different
214 <para>Note that if changing a Windows NT Domain password the
215 remote machine specified must be the Primary Domain Controller for
216 the domain (Backup Domain Controllers only have a read-only
217 copy of the user account database and will not allow the password
220 <para><emphasis>Note</emphasis> that Windows 95/98 do not have
221 a real password database so it is not possible to change passwords
222 specifying a Win95/98 machine as remote machine target. </para>
228 <term>-R name resolve order</term>
229 <listitem><para>This option allows the user of smbpasswd to determine
230 what name resolution services to use when looking up the NetBIOS
231 name of the host being connected to. </para>
233 <para>The options are :"lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast". They
234 cause names to be resolved as follows: </para>
236 <listitem><para><constant>lmhosts</constant>: Lookup an IP
237 address in the Samba lmhosts file. If the line in lmhosts has
238 no name type attached to the NetBIOS name (see the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>lmhosts</refentrytitle>
239 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details) then
240 any name type matches for lookup.</para></listitem>
242 <listitem><para><constant>host</constant>: Do a standard host
243 name to IP address resolution, using the system <filename>/etc/hosts
244 </filename>, NIS, or DNS lookups. This method of name resolution
245 is operating system depended for instance on IRIX or Solaris this
246 may be controlled by the <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf</filename>
247 file). Note that this method is only used if the NetBIOS name
248 type being queried is the 0x20 (server) name type, otherwise
249 it is ignored.</para></listitem>
251 <listitem><para><constant>wins</constant>: Query a name with
252 the IP address listed in the <parameter>wins server</parameter>
253 parameter. If no WINS server has been specified this method
254 will be ignored.</para></listitem>
256 <listitem><para><constant>bcast</constant>: Do a broadcast on
257 each of the known local interfaces listed in the
258 <parameter>interfaces</parameter> parameter. This is the least
259 reliable of the name resolution methods as it depends on the
260 target host being on a locally connected subnet.</para></listitem>
263 <para>The default order is <command>lmhosts, host, wins, bcast</command>
264 and without this parameter or any entry in the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
265 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file the name resolution methods will
266 be attempted in this order. </para></listitem>
272 <listitem><para>This option tells smbpasswd that the account
273 being changed is a MACHINE account. Currently this is used
274 when Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller.</para>
276 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
282 <term>-U username</term>
283 <listitem><para>This option may only be used in conjunction
284 with the <parameter>-r</parameter> option. When changing
285 a password on a remote machine it allows the user to specify
286 the user name on that machine whose password will be changed. It
287 is present to allow users who have different user names on
288 different systems to change these passwords. </para></listitem>
294 <listitem><para>This option prints the help string for <command>
295 smbpasswd</command>, selecting the correct one for running as root
296 or as an ordinary user. </para></listitem>
302 <listitem><para>This option causes smbpasswd to be silent (i.e.
303 not issue prompts) and to read its old and new passwords from
304 standard input, rather than from <filename>/dev/tty</filename>
305 (like the <command>passwd(1)</command> program does). This option
306 is to aid people writing scripts to drive smbpasswd</para>
312 <term>-w password</term>
313 <listitem><para>This parameter is only available if Samba
314 has been compiled with LDAP support. The <parameter>-w</parameter>
315 switch is used to specify the password to be used with the
316 <smbconfoption name="ldap admin dn"/>. Note that the password is stored in
317 the <filename>secrets.tdb</filename> and is keyed off
318 of the admin's DN. This means that if the value of <parameter>ldap
319 admin dn</parameter> ever changes, the password will need to be
320 manually updated as well.
327 <listitem><para>This option tells smbpasswd that the account
328 being changed is an interdomain trust account. Currently this is used
329 when Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller.
330 The account contains the info about another trusted domain.</para>
332 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
338 <listitem><para>Run in local mode.</para></listitem>
342 <term>username</term>
343 <listitem><para>This specifies the username for all of the
344 <emphasis>root only</emphasis> options to operate on. Only root
345 can specify this parameter as only root has the permission needed
346 to modify attributes directly in the local smbpasswd file.
356 <para>Since <command>smbpasswd</command> works in client-server
357 mode communicating with a local smbd for a non-root user then
358 the smbd daemon must be running for this to work. A common problem
359 is to add a restriction to the hosts that may access the <command>
360 smbd</command> running on the local machine by specifying either <parameter>allow
361 hosts</parameter> or <parameter>deny hosts</parameter> entry in
362 the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
363 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file and neglecting to
364 allow "localhost" access to the smbd. </para>
366 <para>In addition, the smbpasswd command is only useful if Samba
367 has been set up to use encrypted passwords. </para>
372 <title>VERSION</title>
374 <para>This man page is correct for version 3.0 of the Samba suite.</para>
378 <title>SEE ALSO</title>
379 <para><citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
380 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>Samba</refentrytitle>
381 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
385 <title>AUTHOR</title>
387 <para>The original Samba software and related utilities
388 were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed
389 by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar
390 to the way the Linux kernel is developed.</para>
392 <para>The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer.
393 The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
394 excellent piece of Open Source software, available at <ulink url="ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/">
395 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/</ulink>) and updated for the Samba 2.0
396 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to DocBook for
397 Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to DocBook XML 4.2
398 for Samba 3.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy.</para>