smbpasswd(8)
SMBPASSWD(8) MAINTENANCE COMMANDS SMBPASSWD(8)
NAME
smbpasswd - change a user's SMB password
SYNOPSIS
smbpasswd [-a] [-c <config file>] [-x] [-d] [-e] [-D
debuglevel] [-n] [-r <remote machine>] [-R <name
resolve order>] [-m] [-U username[%password]] [-h]
[-s] [-w pass] [-W] [-i] [-L] [username]
DESCRIPTION
This tool is part of the samba(7) suite.
The smbpasswd program has several different functions,
depending on whether it is run by the root user or not. When
run as a normal user it allows the user to change the pass-
word used for their SMB sessions on any machines that store
SMB passwords.
By default (when run with no arguments) it will attempt to
change the current user's SMB password on the local machine.
This is similar to the way the passwd(1) program works.
smbpasswd differs from how the passwd program works however
in that it is not setuid root but works in a client-server
mode and communicates with a locally running smbd(8). As a
consequence in order for this to succeed the smbd daemon
must be running on the local machine. On a UNIX machine the
encrypted SMB passwords are usually stored in the
smbpasswd(5) file.
When run by an ordinary user with no options, smbpasswd will
prompt them for their old SMB password and then ask them for
their new password twice, to ensure that the new password
was typed correctly. No passwords will be echoed on the
screen whilst being typed. If you have a blank SMB password
(specified by the string "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd
file) then just press the <Enter> key when asked for your
old password.
smbpasswd can also be used by a normal user to change their
SMB password on remote machines, such as Windows NT Primary
Domain Controllers. See the (-r) and -U options below.
When run by root, smbpasswd allows new users to be added and
deleted in the smbpasswd file, as well as allows changes to
the attributes of the user in this file to be made. When run
by root,
smbpasswd accesses the local smbpasswd file directly, thus
enabling changes to be made even if smbd is not running.
OPTIONS
-a This option specifies that the username following should
be added to the local smbpasswd file, with the new
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SMBPASSWD(8) MAINTENANCE COMMANDS SMBPASSWD(8)
password typed (type <Enter> for the old password). This
option is ignored if the username following already
exists in the smbpasswd file and it is treated like a
regular change password command. Note that the default
passdb backends require the user to already exist in the
system password file (usually /etc/passwd), else the
request to add the user will fail.
This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
root.
-c This option can be used to specify the path and file name
of the smb.conf configuration file when it is important
to use other than the default file and / or location.
-x This option specifies that the username following should
be deleted from the local smbpasswd file.
This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
root.
-d This option specifies that the username following should
be disabled in the local smbpasswd file. This is done by
writing a flag into the account control space in the
smbpasswd file. Once this is done all attempts to authen-
ticate via SMB using this username will fail.
If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format (pre-Samba
2.0 format) there is no space in the user's password
entry to write this information and the command will
FAIL. See smbpasswd(5) for details on the 'old' and new
password file formats.
This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
root.
-e This option specifies that the username following should
be enabled in the local smbpasswd file, if the account
was previously disabled. If the account was not disabled
this option has no effect. Once the account is enabled
then the user will be able to authenticate via SMB once
again.
If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format, then
smbpasswd will FAIL to enable the account. See
smbpasswd(5) for details on the 'old' and new password
file formats.
This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
root.
-D debuglevel
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SMBPASSWD(8) MAINTENANCE COMMANDS SMBPASSWD(8)
debuglevel is an integer from 0 to 10. The default value
if this parameter is not specified is zero.
The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to
the log files about the activities of smbpasswd. At level
0, only critical errors and serious warnings will be
logged.
Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log
data, and should only be used when investigating a prob-
lem. Levels above 3 are designed for use only by develop-
ers and generate HUGE amounts of log data, most of which
is extremely cryptic.
-n This option specifies that the username following should
have their password set to null (i.e. a blank password)
in the local smbpasswd file. This is done by writing the
string "NO PASSWORD" as the first part of the first pass-
word stored in the smbpasswd file.
Note that to allow users to logon to a Samba server once
the password has been set to "NO PASSWORD" in the
smbpasswd file the administrator must set the following
parameter in the [global] section of the smb.conf file :
null passwords = yes
This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
root.
-r remote machine name
This option allows a user to specify what machine they
wish to change their password on. Without this parameter
smbpasswd defaults to the local host. The remote machine
name is the NetBIOS name of the SMB/CIFS server to con-
tact to attempt the password change. This name is
resolved into an IP address using the standard name reso-
lution mechanism in all programs of the Samba suite. See
the -R name resolve order parameter for details on chang-
ing this resolving mechanism.
The username whose password is changed is that of the
current UNIX logged on user. See the -U username parame-
ter for details on changing the password for a different
username.
Note that if changing a Windows NT Domain password the
remote machine specified must be the Primary Domain Con-
troller for the domain (Backup Domain Controllers only
have a read-only copy of the user account database and
will not allow the password change).
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SMBPASSWD(8) MAINTENANCE COMMANDS SMBPASSWD(8)
Note that Windows 95/98 do not have a real password data-
base so it is not possible to change passwords specifying
a Win95/98 machine as remote machine target.
-R name resolve order
This option allows the user of smbpasswd to determine
what name resolution services to use when looking up the
NetBIOS name of the host being connected to.
The options are :"lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast".
They cause names to be resolved as follows:
•
lmhosts: Lookup an IP address in the Samba lmhosts
file. If the line in lmhosts has no name type attached
to the NetBIOS name (see the lmhosts(5) for details)
then any name type matches for lookup.
•
host: Do a standard host name to IP address resolu-
tion, using the system /etc/hosts , NIS, or DNS look-
ups. This method of name resolution is operating sys-
tem depended for instance on IRIX or Solaris this may
be controlled by the /etc/nsswitch.conf file). Note
that this method is only used if the NetBIOS name type
being queried is the 0x20 (server) name type, other-
wise it is ignored.
•
wins: Query a name with the IP address listed in the
wins server parameter. If no WINS server has been
specified this method will be ignored.
•
bcast: Do a broadcast on each of the known local
interfaces listed in the interfaces parameter. This is
the least reliable of the name resolution methods as
it depends on the target host being on a locally con-
nected subnet.
The default order is lmhosts, host, wins, bcast and
without this parameter or any entry in the smb.conf(5)
file the name resolution methods will be attempted in
this order.
-m This option tells smbpasswd that the account being
changed is a MACHINE account. Currently this is used when
Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller.
This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
root.
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SMBPASSWD(8) MAINTENANCE COMMANDS SMBPASSWD(8)
-U username
This option may only be used in conjunction with the -r
option. When changing a password on a remote machine it
allows the user to specify the user name on that machine
whose password will be changed. It is present to allow
users who have different user names on different systems
to change these passwords.
-h This option prints the help string for
smbpasswd, selecting the correct one for running as root
or as an ordinary user.
-s This option causes smbpasswd to be silent (i.e. not issue
prompts) and to read its old and new passwords from stan-
dard input, rather than from /dev/tty (like the passwd(1)
program does). This option is to aid people writing
scripts to drive smbpasswd
-w password
This parameter is only available if Samba has been com-
piled with LDAP support. The -w switch is used to specify
the password to be used with the ldap admin dn. Note that
the password is stored in the secrets.tdb and is keyed
off of the admin's DN. This means that if the value of
ldap admin dn ever changes, the password will need to be
manually updated as well.
-W NOTE: This option is same as "-w" except that the pass-
word should be entered using stdin.
This parameter is only available if Samba has been com-
piled with LDAP support. The -W switch is used to specify
the password to be used with the ldap admin dn. Note that
the password is stored in the secrets.tdb and is keyed
off of the admin's DN. This means that if the value of
ldap admin dn ever changes, the password will need to be
manually updated as well.
-i This option tells smbpasswd that the account being
changed is an interdomain trust account. Currently this
is used when Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain
Controller. The account contains the info about another
trusted domain.
This option is only available when running smbpasswd as
root.
-L Run in local mode.
username
This specifies the username for all of the root only
options to operate on. Only root can specify this
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SMBPASSWD(8) MAINTENANCE COMMANDS SMBPASSWD(8)
parameter as only root has the permission needed to
modify attributes directly in the local smbpasswd file.
NOTES
Since smbpasswd works in client-server mode communicating
with a local smbd for a non-root user then the smbd daemon
must be running for this to work. A common problem is to add
a restriction to the hosts that may access the
smbd running on the local machine by specifying either
allow hosts or deny hosts entry in the smb.conf(5) file and
neglecting to allow "localhost" access to the smbd.
In addition, the smbpasswd command is only useful if Samba
has been set up to use encrypted passwords.
VERSION
This man page is correct for version 3.0 of the Samba suite.
SEE ALSO
smbpasswd(5), Samba(7).
AUTHOR
The original Samba software and related utilities were
created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the
Samba Team as an Open Source project similar to the way the
Linux kernel is developed.
The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer. The
man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
excellent piece of Open Source software, available at
ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/) and updated for the Samba
2.0 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to DocBook for
Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to Doc-
Book XML 4.2 for Samba 3.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy.
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