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">-c <config file></arg>
21 <arg choice="opt">-x</arg>
22 <arg choice="opt">-d</arg>
23 <arg choice="opt">-e</arg>
24 <arg choice="opt">-D debuglevel</arg>
25 <arg choice="opt">-n</arg>
26 <arg choice="opt">-r <remote machine></arg>
27 <arg choice="opt">-R <name resolve order></arg>
28 <arg choice="opt">-m</arg>
29 <arg choice="opt">-U username[%password]</arg>
30 <arg choice="opt">-h</arg>
31 <arg choice="opt">-s</arg>
32 <arg choice="opt">-w pass</arg>
33 <arg choice="opt">-W</arg>
34 <arg choice="opt">-i</arg>
35 <arg choice="opt">-L</arg>
36 <arg choice="opt">username</arg>
41 <title>DESCRIPTION</title>
43 <para>This tool is part of the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>samba</refentrytitle>
44 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> suite.</para>
46 <para>The smbpasswd program has several different
47 functions, depending on whether it is run by the <emphasis>root</emphasis> user
48 or not. When run as a normal user it allows the user to change
49 the password used for their SMB sessions on any machines that store
50 SMB passwords. </para>
52 <para>By default (when run with no arguments) it will attempt to
53 change the current user's SMB password on the local machine. This is
54 similar to the way the <command>passwd(1)</command> program works. <command>
55 smbpasswd</command> differs from how the passwd program works
56 however in that it is not <emphasis>setuid root</emphasis> but works in
57 a client-server mode and communicates with a
58 locally running <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbd</refentrytitle>
59 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>. As a consequence in order for this to
60 succeed the smbd daemon must be running on the local machine. On a
61 UNIX machine the encrypted SMB passwords are usually stored in
62 the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
63 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file. </para>
65 <para>When run by an ordinary user with no options, smbpasswd
66 will prompt them for their old SMB password and then ask them
67 for their new password twice, to ensure that the new password
68 was typed correctly. No passwords will be echoed on the screen
69 whilst being typed. If you have a blank SMB password (specified by
70 the string "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd file) then just press
71 the <Enter> key when asked for your old password. </para>
73 <para>smbpasswd can also be used by a normal user to change their
74 SMB password on remote machines, such as Windows NT Primary Domain
75 Controllers. See the (<parameter>-r</parameter>) and <parameter>-U</parameter> options
78 <para>When run by root, smbpasswd allows new users to be added
79 and deleted in the smbpasswd file, as well as allows changes to
80 the attributes of the user in this file to be made. When run by root, <command>
81 smbpasswd</command> accesses the local smbpasswd file
82 directly, thus enabling changes to be made even if smbd is not
87 <title>OPTIONS</title>
92 This option specifies that the username following should be added to the local smbpasswd file, with the new
93 password typed (type <Enter> for the old password). This option is ignored if the username following
94 already exists in the smbpasswd file and it is treated like a regular change password command. Note that the
95 default passdb backends require the user to already exist in the system password file (usually
96 <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>), else the request to add the user will fail.
99 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd
100 as root. </para></listitem>
107 This option can be used to specify the path and file name of the &smb.conf; configuration file when it
108 is important to use other than the default file and / or location.
116 This option specifies that the username following should be deleted from the local smbpasswd file.
120 This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
128 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
129 should be <constant>disabled</constant> in the local smbpasswd
130 file. This is done by writing a <constant>'D'</constant> flag
131 into the account control space in the smbpasswd file. Once this
132 is done all attempts to authenticate via SMB using this username
135 <para>If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format (pre-Samba 2.0
136 format) there is no space in the user's password entry to write
137 this information and the command will FAIL. See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
138 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details on the 'old' and new password file formats.
141 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
142 root.</para></listitem>
148 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
149 should be <constant>enabled</constant> in the local smbpasswd file,
150 if the account was previously disabled. If the account was not
151 disabled this option has no effect. Once the account is enabled then
152 the user will be able to authenticate via SMB once again. </para>
154 <para>If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format, then <command>
155 smbpasswd</command> will FAIL to enable the account.
156 See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
157 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
158 details on the 'old' and new password file formats. </para>
160 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
167 <term>-D debuglevel</term>
168 <listitem><para><replaceable>debuglevel</replaceable> is an integer
169 from 0 to 10. The default value if this parameter is not specified
172 <para>The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the
173 log files about the activities of smbpasswd. At level 0, only
174 critical errors and serious warnings will be logged. </para>
176 <para>Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log
177 data, and should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels
178 above 3 are designed for use only by developers and generate
179 HUGE amounts of log data, most of which is extremely cryptic.
187 <listitem><para>This option specifies that the username following
188 should have their password set to null (i.e. a blank password) in
189 the local smbpasswd file. This is done by writing the string "NO
190 PASSWORD" as the first part of the first password stored in the
191 smbpasswd file. </para>
193 <para>Note that to allow users to logon to a Samba server once
194 the password has been set to "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd
195 file the administrator must set the following parameter in the [global]
196 section of the <filename>smb.conf</filename> file : </para>
198 <para><command>null passwords = yes</command></para>
200 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
201 root.</para></listitem>
207 <term>-r remote machine name</term>
208 <listitem><para>This option allows a user to specify what machine
209 they wish to change their password on. Without this parameter
210 smbpasswd defaults to the local host. The <replaceable>remote
211 machine name</replaceable> is the NetBIOS name of the SMB/CIFS
212 server to contact to attempt the password change. This name is
213 resolved into an IP address using the standard name resolution
214 mechanism in all programs of the Samba suite. See the <parameter>-R
215 name resolve order</parameter> parameter for details on changing
216 this resolving mechanism. </para>
218 <para>The username whose password is changed is that of the
219 current UNIX logged on user. See the <parameter>-U username</parameter>
220 parameter for details on changing the password for a different
223 <para>Note that if changing a Windows NT Domain password the
224 remote machine specified must be the Primary Domain Controller for
225 the domain (Backup Domain Controllers only have a read-only
226 copy of the user account database and will not allow the password
229 <para><emphasis>Note</emphasis> that Windows 95/98 do not have
230 a real password database so it is not possible to change passwords
231 specifying a Win95/98 machine as remote machine target. </para>
237 <term>-R name resolve order</term>
238 <listitem><para>This option allows the user of smbpasswd to determine
239 what name resolution services to use when looking up the NetBIOS
240 name of the host being connected to. </para>
242 <para>The options are :"lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast". They
243 cause names to be resolved as follows: </para>
245 <listitem><para><constant>lmhosts</constant>: Lookup an IP
246 address in the Samba lmhosts file. If the line in lmhosts has
247 no name type attached to the NetBIOS name (see the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>lmhosts</refentrytitle>
248 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details) then
249 any name type matches for lookup.</para></listitem>
251 <listitem><para><constant>host</constant>: Do a standard host
252 name to IP address resolution, using the system <filename>/etc/hosts
253 </filename>, NIS, or DNS lookups. This method of name resolution
254 is operating system depended for instance on IRIX or Solaris this
255 may be controlled by the <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf</filename>
256 file). Note that this method is only used if the NetBIOS name
257 type being queried is the 0x20 (server) name type, otherwise
258 it is ignored.</para></listitem>
260 <listitem><para><constant>wins</constant>: Query a name with
261 the IP address listed in the <parameter>wins server</parameter>
262 parameter. If no WINS server has been specified this method
263 will be ignored.</para></listitem>
265 <listitem><para><constant>bcast</constant>: Do a broadcast on
266 each of the known local interfaces listed in the
267 <parameter>interfaces</parameter> parameter. This is the least
268 reliable of the name resolution methods as it depends on the
269 target host being on a locally connected subnet.</para></listitem>
272 <para>The default order is <command>lmhosts, host, wins, bcast</command>
273 and without this parameter or any entry in the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
274 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file the name resolution methods will
275 be attempted in this order. </para></listitem>
281 <listitem><para>This option tells smbpasswd that the account
282 being changed is a MACHINE account. Currently this is used
283 when Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller.</para>
285 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
291 <term>-U username</term>
292 <listitem><para>This option may only be used in conjunction
293 with the <parameter>-r</parameter> option. When changing
294 a password on a remote machine it allows the user to specify
295 the user name on that machine whose password will be changed. It
296 is present to allow users who have different user names on
297 different systems to change these passwords. </para></listitem>
303 <listitem><para>This option prints the help string for <command>
304 smbpasswd</command>, selecting the correct one for running as root
305 or as an ordinary user. </para></listitem>
311 <listitem><para>This option causes smbpasswd to be silent (i.e.
312 not issue prompts) and to read its old and new passwords from
313 standard input, rather than from <filename>/dev/tty</filename>
314 (like the <command>passwd(1)</command> program does). This option
315 is to aid people writing scripts to drive smbpasswd</para>
321 <term>-w password</term>
322 <listitem><para>This parameter is only available if Samba
323 has been compiled with LDAP support. The <parameter>-w</parameter>
324 switch is used to specify the password to be used with the
325 <smbconfoption name="ldap admin dn"/>. Note that the password is stored in
326 the <filename>secrets.tdb</filename> and is keyed off
327 of the admin's DN. This means that if the value of <parameter>ldap
328 admin dn</parameter> ever changes, the password will need to be
329 manually updated as well.
336 <listitem><para><command>NOTE: </command> This option is same as "-w"
337 except that the password should be entered using stdin.
339 <para>This parameter is only available if Samba
340 has been compiled with LDAP support. The <parameter>-W</parameter>
341 switch is used to specify the password to be used with the
342 <smbconfoption name="ldap admin dn"/>. Note that the password is stored in
343 the <filename>secrets.tdb</filename> and is keyed off
344 of the admin's DN. This means that if the value of <parameter>ldap
345 admin dn</parameter> ever changes, the password will need to be
346 manually updated as well.
354 <listitem><para>This option tells smbpasswd that the account
355 being changed is an interdomain trust account. Currently this is used
356 when Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller.
357 The account contains the info about another trusted domain.</para>
359 <para>This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
365 <listitem><para>Run in local mode.</para></listitem>
369 <term>username</term>
370 <listitem><para>This specifies the username for all of the
371 <emphasis>root only</emphasis> options to operate on. Only root
372 can specify this parameter as only root has the permission needed
373 to modify attributes directly in the local smbpasswd file.
383 <para>Since <command>smbpasswd</command> works in client-server
384 mode communicating with a local smbd for a non-root user then
385 the smbd daemon must be running for this to work. A common problem
386 is to add a restriction to the hosts that may access the <command>
387 smbd</command> running on the local machine by specifying either <parameter>allow
388 hosts</parameter> or <parameter>deny hosts</parameter> entry in
389 the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
390 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file and neglecting to
391 allow "localhost" access to the smbd. </para>
393 <para>In addition, the smbpasswd command is only useful if Samba
394 has been set up to use encrypted passwords. </para>
399 <title>VERSION</title>
401 <para>This man page is correct for version 3.0 of the Samba suite.</para>
405 <title>SEE ALSO</title>
406 <para><citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
407 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>Samba</refentrytitle>
408 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
412 <title>AUTHOR</title>
414 <para>The original Samba software and related utilities
415 were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed
416 by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar
417 to the way the Linux kernel is developed.</para>
419 <para>The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer.
420 The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
421 excellent piece of Open Source software, available at <ulink url="ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/">
422 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/</ulink>) and updated for the Samba 2.0
423 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to DocBook for
424 Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to DocBook XML 4.2
425 for Samba 3.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy.</para>