1SMBPASSWD(8) SMBPASSWD(8)
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6 smbpasswd - change a user's SMB password
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9 smbpasswd [-a] [-c <config file>] [-x] [-d] [-e] [-D debuglevel] [-n]
10 [-r <remote machine>] [-R <name resolve order>] [-m] [-U user‐
11 name[%password]] [-h] [-s] [-w pass] [-W] [-i] [-L] [username]
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14 This tool is part of the samba(7) suite.
15 The smbpasswd program has several different functions, depending on
17 whether it is run by the root user or not. When run as a normal user it
18 allows the user to change the password used for their SMB sessions on
19 any machines that store SMB passwords.
20 By default (when run with no arguments) it will attempt to change the
22 current user's SMB password on the local machine. This is similar to
23 the way the passwd(1) program works. smbpasswd differs from how the
24 passwd program works however in that it is not setuid root but works in
25 a client-server mode and communicates with a locally running smbd(8).
26 As a consequence in order for this to succeed the smbd daemon must be
27 running on the local machine. On a UNIX machine the encrypted SMB pass‐
28 words are usually stored in the smbpasswd(5) file.
29 When run by an ordinary user with no options, smbpasswd will prompt
31 them for their old SMB password and then ask them for their new pass‐
32 word twice, to ensure that the new password was typed correctly. No
33 passwords will be echoed on the screen whilst being typed. If you have
34 a blank SMB password (specified by the string "NO PASSWORD" in the smb‐
35 passwd file) then just press the <Enter> key when asked for your old
36 password.
37 smbpasswd can also be used by a normal user to change their SMB pass‐
39 word on remote machines, such as Windows NT Primary Domain Controllers.
40 See the (-r) and -U options below.
41 When run by root, smbpasswd allows new users to be added and deleted in
43 the smbpasswd file, as well as allows changes to the attributes of the
44 user in this file to be made. When run by root, smbpasswd accesses the
45 local smbpasswd file directly, thus enabling changes to be made even if
46 smbd is not running.
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49 -a
50 This option specifies that the username following should be added to
51 the local smbpasswd file, with the new password typed (type <Enter>
52 for the old password). This option is ignored if the username fol‐
53 lowing already exists in the smbpasswd file and it is treated like a
54 regular change password command. Note that the default passdb back‐
55 ends require the user to already exist in the system password file
56 (usually /etc/passwd), else the request to add the user will fail.
57 This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
59 -c
61 This option can be used to specify the path and file name of the
62 smb.conf configuration file when it is important to use other than
63 the default file and / or location.
64 -x
66 This option specifies that the username following should be deleted
67 from the local smbpasswd file.
68 This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
70 -d
72 This option specifies that the username following should be disabled
73 in the local smbpasswd file. This is done by writing a 'D' flag into
74 the account control space in the smbpasswd file. Once this is done
75 all attempts to authenticate via SMB using this username will fail.
76 If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format (pre-Samba 2.0 format)
78 there is no space in the user's password entry to write this infor‐
79 mation and the command will FAIL. See smbpasswd(5) for details on
80 the 'old' and new password file formats.
81 This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
83 -e
85 This option specifies that the username following should be enabled
86 in the local smbpasswd file, if the account was previously disabled.
87 If the account was not disabled this option has no effect. Once the
88 account is enabled then the user will be able to authenticate via
89 SMB once again.
90 If the smbpasswd file is in the 'old' format, then smbpasswd will
92 FAIL to enable the account. See smbpasswd(5) for details on the
93 'old' and new password file formats.
94 This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
96 -D debuglevel
98 debuglevel is an integer from 0 to 10. The default value if this
99 parameter is not specified is zero.
100 The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the log
102 files about the activities of smbpasswd. At level 0, only critical
103 errors and serious warnings will be logged.
104 Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log data, and
106 should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels above 3 are
107 designed for use only by developers and generate HUGE amounts of log
108 data, most of which is extremely cryptic.
109 -n
111 This option specifies that the username following should have their
112 password set to null (i.e. a blank password) in the local smbpasswd
113 file. This is done by writing the string "NO PASSWORD" as the first
114 part of the first password stored in the smbpasswd file.
115 Note that to allow users to logon to a Samba server once the pass‐
117 word has been set to "NO PASSWORD" in the smbpasswd file the admin‐
118 istrator must set the following parameter in the [global] section of
119 the smb.conf file :
120 null passwords = yes
122 This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
124 -r remote machine name
126 This option allows a user to specify what machine they wish to
127 change their password on. Without this parameter smbpasswd defaults
128 to the local host. The remote machine name is the NetBIOS name of
129 the SMB/CIFS server to contact to attempt the password change. This
130 name is resolved into an IP address using the standard name resolu‐
131 tion mechanism in all programs of the Samba suite. See the -R name
132 resolve order parameter for details on changing this resolving mech‐
133 anism.
134 The username whose password is changed is that of the current UNIX
136 logged on user. See the -U username parameter for details on chang‐
137 ing the password for a different username.
138 Note that if changing a Windows NT Domain password the remote
140 machine specified must be the Primary Domain Controller for the
141 domain (Backup Domain Controllers only have a read-only copy of the
142 user account database and will not allow the password change).
143 Note that Windows 95/98 do not have a real password database so it
145 is not possible to change passwords specifying a Win95/98 machine as
146 remote machine target.
147 -R name resolve order
149 This option allows the user of smbpasswd to determine what name res‐
150 olution services to use when looking up the NetBIOS name of the host
151 being connected to.
152 The options are :"lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast". They cause
154 names to be resolved as follows:
155 · lmhosts: Lookup an IP address in the Samba lmhosts file. If
157 the line in lmhosts has no name type attached to the NetBIOS
158 name (see the lmhosts(5) for details) then any name type
159 matches for lookup.
160 · host: Do a standard host name to IP address resolution, using
162 the system /etc/hosts , NIS, or DNS lookups. This method of
163 name resolution is operating system depended for instance on
164 IRIX or Solaris this may be controlled by the /etc/nss‐
165 witch.conf file). Note that this method is only used if the
166 NetBIOS name type being queried is the 0x20 (server) name
167 type, otherwise it is ignored.
168 · wins: Query a name with the IP address listed in the wins
170 server parameter. If no WINS server has been specified this
171 method will be ignored.
172 · bcast: Do a broadcast on each of the known local interfaces
174 listed in the interfaces parameter. This is the least reliable
175 of the name resolution methods as it depends on the target
176 host being on a locally connected subnet.
177 The default order is lmhosts, host, wins, bcast and without this
179 parameter or any entry in the smb.conf(5) file the name resolu‐
180 tion methods will be attempted in this order.
181 -m
183 This option tells smbpasswd that the account being changed is a
184 MACHINE account. Currently this is used when Samba is being used as
185 an NT Primary Domain Controller.
186 This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
188 -U username
190 This option may only be used in conjunction with the -r option. When
191 changing a password on a remote machine it allows the user to spec‐
192 ify the user name on that machine whose password will be changed. It
193 is present to allow users who have different user names on different
194 systems to change these passwords.
195 -h
197 This option prints the help string for smbpasswd, selecting the cor‐
198 rect one for running as root or as an ordinary user.
199 -s
201 This option causes smbpasswd to be silent (i.e. not issue prompts)
202 and to read its old and new passwords from standard input, rather
203 than from /dev/tty (like the passwd(1) program does). This option is
204 to aid people writing scripts to drive smbpasswd
205 -w password
207 This parameter is only available if Samba has been compiled with
208 LDAP support. The -w switch is used to specify the password to be
209 used with the ldap admin dn. Note that the password is stored in the
210 secrets.tdb and is keyed off of the admin's DN. This means that if
211 the value of ldap admin dn ever changes, the password will need to
212 be manually updated as well.
213 -W
215 NOTE: This option is same as "-w" except that the password should be
216 entered using stdin.
217 This parameter is only available if Samba has been compiled with
219 LDAP support. The -W switch is used to specify the password to be
220 used with the ldap admin dn. Note that the password is stored in the
221 secrets.tdb and is keyed off of the admin's DN. This means that if
222 the value of ldap admin dn ever changes, the password will need to
223 be manually updated as well.
224 -i
226 This option tells smbpasswd that the account being changed is an
227 interdomain trust account. Currently this is used when Samba is
228 being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller. The account contains
229 the info about another trusted domain.
230 This option is only available when running smbpasswd as root.
232 -L
234 Run in local mode.
235 username
237 This specifies the username for all of the root only options to
238 operate on. Only root can specify this parameter as only root has
239 the permission needed to modify attributes directly in the local
240 smbpasswd file.
241
243 Since smbpasswd works in client-server mode communicating with a local
244 smbd for a non-root user then the smbd daemon must be running for this
245 to work. A common problem is to add a restriction to the hosts that may
246 access the smbd running on the local machine by specifying either allow
247 hosts or deny hosts entry in the smb.conf(5) file and neglecting to
248 allow "localhost" access to the smbd.
249 In addition, the smbpasswd command is only useful if Samba has been set
251 up to use encrypted passwords.
252
254 This man page is correct for version 3.0 of the Samba suite.
255
257 smbpasswd(5), Samba(7).
258
260 The original Samba software and related utilities were created by
261 Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open
262 Source project similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed.
263 The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer. The man page
265 sources were converted to YODL format (another excellent piece of Open
266 Source software, available at ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/) and
267 updated for the Samba 2.0 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to
268 DocBook for Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to Doc‐
269 Book XML 4.2 for Samba 3.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy.
270 SMBPASSWD(8)