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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 password 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 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 'D'
           flag into the account control space in the smbpasswd file. Once
           this is done all attempts to authenticate 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
           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 problem. Levels above 3
           are designed for use only by developers 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 password 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 contact to attempt the password change. This
           name is resolved into an IP address using the standard name
           resolution mechanism in all programs of the Samba suite. See the -R
           name resolve order parameter for details on changing this resolving
           mechanism.

           The username whose password is changed is that of the current UNIX
           logged on user. See the -U username parameter 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 Controller for the
           domain (Backup Domain Controllers only have a read-only copy of the
           user account database and will not allow the password change).

           Note that Windows 95/98 do not have a real password database 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:

           o   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.

           o   host: Do a standard host name to IP address resolution, using
               the system /etc/hosts , NIS, or DNS lookups. This method of
               name resolution is operating system 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, otherwise it is ignored.

           o   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.

           o   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 connected 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.

       -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 standard 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 compiled 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 password should
           be entered using stdin.

           This parameter is only available if Samba has been compiled 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 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
       DocBook XML 4.2 for Samba 3.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy.

Samba 3.0                         05/28/2008                      SMBPASSWD(8)

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