PASSWD(1)PASSWD(1)NAMEpasswd - change login password and password attributes
SYNOPSISpasswd [-r files | -r ldap | -r nis | -r nisplus] [name]
passwd [-r files] [-egh] [name]
passwd [-r files] -s [-a]
passwd [-r files] -s [name]
passwd [-r files] [-d | -l | -u | -N] [-f] [-n min]
[-w warn] [-x max] name
passwd-r ldap [-egh] [name]
passwd [-r ldap ] -s [-a]
passwd [-r ldap ] -s [name]
passwd-r ldap [-d | -l | -u | -N] [-f] [-n min] [-w warn] [-x max] name
passwd-r nis [-egh] [name]
passwd-r nisplus [-egh] [-D domainname] [name]
passwd-r nisplus -s [-a]
passwd-r nisplus [-D domainname] -s [name]
passwd-r nisplus [-l | -u | -N] [-f] [-n min] [-w warn]
[-x max] [-D domainname] name
DESCRIPTION
The passwd command changes the password or lists password attributes
associated with the user's login name. Additionally, privileged users
can use passwd to install or change passwords and attributes associated
with any login name.
When used to change a password, passwd prompts everyone for their old
password, if any. It then prompts for the new password twice. When the
old password is entered, passwd checks to see if it has aged suffi‐
ciently. If aging is insufficient, passwd terminates; see pwconv(1M),
nistbladm(1), and shadow(4) for additional information.
The pwconv command creates and updates /etc/shadow with information
from /etc/passwd. pwconv relies on a special value of x in the password
field of /etc/passwd. This value of xindicates that the password for
the user is already in /etc/shadow and should not be modified.
If aging is sufficient, a check is made to ensure that the new password
meets construction requirements. When the new password is entered a
second time, the two copies of the new password are compared. If the
two copies are not identical, the cycle of prompting for the new pass‐
word is repeated for, at most, two more times.
Passwords must be constructed to meet the following requirements:
o Each password must have PASSLENGTH characters, where
PASSLENGTH is defined in /etc/default/passwd and is set to
6. Setting PASSLENGTH to more than eight characters requires
configuring policy.conf(4) with an algorithm that supports
greater than eight characters.
o Each password must meet the configured complexity con‐
straints specified in /etc/default/passwd.
o Each password must not be a member of the configured dictio‐
nary as specified in /etc/default/passwd.
o For accounts in name services which support password history
checking, if prior password history is defined, new pass‐
words must not be contained in the prior password history.
If all requirements are met, by default, the passwd command consults
/etc/nsswitch.conf to determine in which repositories to perform pass‐
word update. It searches the passwd and passwd_compat entries. The
sources (repositories) associated with these entries are updated. How‐
ever, the password update configurations supported are limited to the
following cases. Failure to comply with the configurations prevents
users from logging onto the system. The password update configurations
are:
o passwd: files
o passwd: files ldap
o passwd: files nis
o passwd: files nisplus
o passwd: compat (==> files nis)
o passwd: compat (==> files ldap)
passwd_compat: ldap
o passwd: compat (==> files nisplus)
passwd_compat: nisplus
You can add the ad keyword to any of the passwd configurations in the
above list. However, you cannot use the passwd command to change the
password of an Active Directory (AD) user. If the ad keyword is found
in the passwd entry during a password update operation, it is ignored.
To update the password of an AD user, use the kpasswd(1) command.
Network administrators, who own the NIS+ password table, can change any
password attributes. The administrator configured for updating LDAP
shadow information can also change any password attributes. See ldap‐
client(1M).
When a user has a password stored in one of the name services as well
as a local files entry, the passwd command updates both. It is possible
to have different passwords in the name service and local files entry.
Use passwd-r to change a specific password repository.
In the files case, super-users (for instance, real and effective uid
equal to 0, see id(1M) and su(1M)) can change any password. Hence,
passwd does not prompt privileged users for the old password. Privi‐
leged users are not forced to comply with password aging and password
construction requirements. A privileged user can create a null password
by entering a carriage return in response to the prompt for a new pass‐
word. (This differs from passwd-d because the password prompt is still
displayed.) If NIS is in effect, superuser on the root master can
change any password without being prompted for the old NIS passwd, and
is not forced to comply with password construction requirements.
If LDAP is in effect, superuser on any Native LDAP client system can
change any password without being prompted for the old LDAP passwd, and
is not forced to comply with password construction requirements.
Normally, passwd entered with no arguments changes the password of the
current user. When a user logs in and then invokes su(1M) to become
superuser or another user, passwd changes the original user's password,
not the password of the superuser or the new user.
Any user can use the -s option to show password attributes for his or
her own login name, provided they are using the -r nisplus argument.
Otherwise, the -s argument is restricted to the superuser.
The format of the display is:
name status mm/dd/yy min max warn
or, if password aging information is not present,
name status
where
name
The login ID of the user.
status
The password status of name.
The status field can take the following values:
LK
This account is locked account. See Security.
NL
This account is a no login account. See Security.
NP
This account has no password and is therefore open
without authentication.
PS
This account has a password.
mm/dd/yy
The date password was last changed for name. All password
aging dates are determined using Greenwich Mean Time (Uni‐
versal Time) and therefore can differ by as much as a day
in other time zones.
min
The minimum number of days required between password
changes for name. MINWEEKS is found in /etc/default/passwd
and is set to NULL.
max
The maximum number of days the password is valid for name.
MAXWEEKS is found in /etc/default/passwd and is set to
NULL.
warn
The number of days relative to max before the password
expires and the name are warned.
Security
passwd uses pam(3PAM) for password change. It calls PAM with a service
name passwd and uses service module type auth for authentication and
password for password change.
Locking an account (-l option) does not allow its use for password
based login or delayed execution (such as at(1), batch(1), or
cron(1M)). The -N option can be used to disallow password based login,
while continuing to allow delayed execution.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-a
Shows password attributes for all entries. Use only
with the -s option. name must not be provided. For
the nisplus repository, this shows only the entries in
the NIS+ password table in the local domain that the
invoker is authorized to read. For the files and ldap
repositories, this is restricted to the superuser.
-D domainname
Consults the passwd.org_dir table in domainname. If
this option is not specified, the default domainname
returned by nis_local_directory(3NSL) are used. This
domain name is the same as that returned by domain‐
name(1M).
-e
Changes the login shell. The choice of shell is lim‐
ited by the requirements of getusershell(3C). If the
user currently has a shell that is not allowed by
getusershell, only root can change it.
-g
Changes the gecos (finger) information. For the files
repository, this only works for the superuser. Normal
users can change the ldap, nis, or nisplus reposito‐
ries.
-h
Changes the home directory.
-r
Specifies the repository to which an operation is
applied. The supported repositories are files, ldap,
nis, or nisplus.
-s name
Shows password attributes for the login name. For the
nisplus repository, this works for everyone. However
for the files and ldap repositories, this only works
for the superuser. It does not work at all for the nis
repository which does not support password aging.
The output of this option, and only this option is
Stable and parsable. The format is username followed
by white space followed by one of the following codes.
New codes might be added in the future so code that
parses this must be flexible in the face of unknown
codes. While all existing codes are two characters in
length that might not always be the case.
The following are the current status codes:
LK
Account is locked for UNIX authentication.
passwd-l was run or the authentication failed
RETRIES times.
NL
The account is a no login account. passwd-N has
been run.
NP
Account has no password. passwd-d was run.
PS
The account probably has a valid password.
UN
The data in the password field is unknown. It is
not a recognizable hashed password or any of the
above entries. See crypt(3C) for valid password
hashes.
Privileged User Options
Only a privileged user can use the following options:
-d
Deletes password for name and unlocks the account. The login
name is not prompted for password. It is only applicable to
the files and ldap repositories.
If the login(1) option PASSREQ=YES is configured, the
account is not able to login. PASSREQ=YES is the delivered
default.
-f
Forces the user to change password at the next login by
expiring the password for name.
-l
Locks password entry for name. See the -d or -u option for
unlocking the account.
-N
Makes the password entry for name a value that cannot be
used for login, but does not lock the account. See the -d
option for removing the value, or to set a password to allow
logins.
-n min
Sets minimum field for name. The min field contains the min‐
imum number of days between password changes for name. If
min is greater than max, the user can not change the pass‐
word. Always use this option with the -x option, unless max
is set to −1 (aging turned off). In that case, min need not
be set.
-u
Unlocks a locked password for entry name. See the -d option
for removing the locked password, or to set a password to
allow logins.
-w warn
Sets warn field for name. The warn field contains the number
of days before the password expires and the user is warned.
This option is not valid if password aging is disabled.
-x max
Sets maximum field for name. The max field contains the num‐
ber of days that the password is valid for name. The aging
for name is turned off immediately if max is set to −1.
OPERANDS
The following operand is supported:
name
User login name.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
If any of the LC_* variables, that is, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, LC_TIME,
LC_COLLATE, LC_NUMERIC, and LC_MONETARY (see environ(5)), are not set
in the environment, the operational behavior of passwd for each corre‐
sponding locale category is determined by the value of the LANG envi‐
ronment variable. If LC_ALL is set, its contents are used to override
both the LANG and the other LC_* variables. If none of the above vari‐
ables is set in the environment, the C (U.S. style) locale determines
how passwd behaves.
LC_CTYPE
Determines how passwd handles characters. When LC_CTYPE
is set to a valid value, passwd can display and handle
text and filenames containing valid characters for that
locale. passwd can display and handle Extended Unix Code
(EUC) characters where any individual character can be
1, 2, or 3 bytes wide. passwd can also handle EUC char‐
acters of 1, 2, or more column widths. In the C locale,
only characters from ISO 8859-1 are valid.
LC_MESSAGES
Determines how diagnostic and informative messages are
presented. This includes the language and style of the
messages, and the correct form of affirmative and nega‐
tive responses. In the C locale, the messages are pre‐
sented in the default form found in the program itself
(in most cases, U.S. English).
EXIT STATUS
The passwd command exits with one of the following values:
0
Success.
1
Permission denied.
2
Invalid combination of options.
3
Unexpected failure. Password file unchanged.
4
Unexpected failure. Password file(s) missing.
5
Password file(s) busy. Try again later.
6
Invalid argument to option.
7
Aging option is disabled.
8
No memory.
9
System error.
10
Account expired.
FILES
/etc/default/passwd
Default values can be set for the following
flags in /etc/default/passwd. For example:
MAXWEEKS=26
DICTIONDBDIR
The directory where the gener‐
ated dictionary databases
reside. Defaults to /var/passwd.
If neither DICTIONLIST nor DIC‐
TIONDBDIR is specified, the sys‐
tem does not perform a dictio‐
nary check.
DICTIONLIST
DICTIONLIST can contain list of
comma separated dictionary files
such as DICTIONLIST=file1,
file2, file3. Each dictionary
file contains multiple lines and
each line consists of a word and
a NEWLINE character (similar to
/usr/share/lib/dict/words.) You
must specify full pathnames. The
words from these files are
merged into a database that is
used to determine whether a
password is based on a dictio‐
nary word.
If neither DICTIONLIST nor DIC‐
TIONDBDIR is specified, the sys‐
tem does not perform a dictio‐
nary check.
To pre-build the dictionary
database, see mkpwdict(1M).
HISTORY
Maximum number of prior password
history to keep for a user. Set‐
ting the HISTORY value to zero
(0), or removing the flag,
causes the prior password his‐
tory of all users to be dis‐
carded at the next password
change by any user. The default
is not to define the HISTORY
flag. The maximum value is 26.
Currently, this functionality is
enforced only for user accounts
defined in the files name ser‐
vice (local
passwd(4)/shadow(4)).
MAXREPEATS
Maximum number of allowable con‐
secutive repeating characters.
If MAXREPEATS is not set or is
zero (0), the default is no
checks
MAXWEEKS
Maximum time period that pass‐
word is valid.
MINALPHA
Minimum number of alpha charac‐
ter required. If MINALPHA is not
set, the default is 2.
MINDIFF
Minimum differences required
between an old and a new pass‐
word. If MINDIFF is not set, the
default is 3.
MINDIGIT
Minimum number of digits
required. If MINDIGIT is not set
or is set to zero (0), the
default is no checks. You cannot
be specify MINDIGIT if MINNONAL‐
PHA is also specified.
MINLOWER
Minimum number of lower case
letters required. If not set or
zero (0), the default is no
checks.
MINNONALPHA
Minimum number of non-alpha
(including numeric and special)
required. If MINNONALPHA is not
set, the default is 1. You can‐
not specify MINNONALPHA if
MINDIGIT or MINSPECIAL is also
specified.
MINWEEKS
Minimum time period before the
password can be changed.
MINSPECIAL
Minimum number of special (non-
alpha and non-digit) characters
required. If MINSPECIAL is not
set or is zero (0), the default
is no checks. You cannot specify
MINSPECIAL if you also specify
MINNONALPHA.
MINUPPER
Minimum number of upper case
letters required. If MINUPPER is
not set or is zero (0), the
default is no checks.
NAMECHECK
Enable/disable checking or the
login name. The default is to do
login name checking. A case
insensitive value of no disables
this feature.
PASSLENGTH
Minimum length of password, in
characters.
WARNWEEKS
Time period until warning of
date of password's ensuing expi‐
ration.
WHITESPACE
Determine if white space charac‐
ters are allowed in passwords.
Valid values are YES and NO. If
WHITESPACE is not set or is set
to YES, white space characters
are allowed.
/etc/oshadow
Temporary file used by passwd, passmgmt and
pwconv to update the real shadow file.
/etc/passwd
Password file.
/etc/shadow
Shadow password file.
/etc/shells
Shell database.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│CSI │ Enabled │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │ See below. │
└────────────────────┴─────────────────┘
The human readable output is Uncommitted. The options are Committed.
SEE ALSOat(1), batch(1), finger(1), kpasswd(1), login(1), nistbladm(1),
cron(1M), domainname(1M), eeprom(1M), id(1M), ldapclient(1M), mkpw‐
dict(1M), passmgmt(1M), pwconv(1M), su(1M), useradd(1M), userdel(1M),
usermod(1M), crypt(3C), getpwnam(3C), getspnam(3C), getusershell(3C),
nis_local_directory(3NSL), pam(3PAM), loginlog(4), nsswitch.conf(4),
pam.conf(4), passwd(4), policy.conf(4), shadow(4), shells(4),
attributes(5), environ(5), pam_authtok_check(5), pam_authtok_get(5),
pam_authtok_store(5), pam_dhkeys(5), pam_ldap(5), pam_unix_account(5),
pam_unix_auth(5), pam_unix_session(5)NOTES
The pam_unix(5) module is no longer supported. Similar functionality is
provided by pam_unix_account(5), pam_unix_auth(5), pam_unix_session(5),
pam_authtok_check(5), pam_authtok_get(5), pam_authtok_store(5),
pam_dhkeys(5), and pam_passwd_auth(5).
The nispasswd and ypasswd commands are wrappers around passwd. Use of
nispasswd and ypasswd is discouraged. Use passwd-r repository_name
instead.
NIS+ might not be supported in future releases of the Solaris operating
system. Tools to aid the migration from NIS+ to LDAP are available in
the current Solaris release. For more information, visit
http://www.sun.com/directory/nisplus/transition.html.
Changing a password in the files and ldap repositories clears the
failed login count.
Changing a password reactivates an account deactivated for inactivity
for the length of the inactivity period.
If /etc/shells is present, and is corrupted, it may provide an attack
vector that would compromise the system. The getusershell(3c) library
call has a pre-vetted list of shells, so /etc/shells should be used
with caution.
Input terminal processing might interpret some key sequences and not
pass them to the passwd command.
An account with no password, status code NP, might not be able to
login. See the login(1) PASSREQ option.
May 31, 2013 PASSWD(1)
