mailto(samba@samba.org) manpage(smbpasswd htmlcommand((8)))(8)(23 Oct 1998)(Samba)(SAMBA) label(NAME) manpagename(smbpasswd)(change a users SMB password) label(SYNOPSIS) manpagesynopsis() bf(smbpasswd) [link(-a)(minusa)] [link(-x)(minusx)] [link(-d)(minusd)] [link(-e)(minuse)] [link(-D debug level)(minusD)] [link(-n)(minusn)] [link(-r remote_machine)(minusr)] [link(-R name resolve order)(minusR)] [link(-m)(minusm)] [link(-j DOMAIN)(minusj)] [link(-U username)(minusU)] [link(-h)(minush)] [link(-s)(minuss)] link(username)(username) label(DESCRIPTION) manpagedescription() This program is part of the bf(Samba) suite. The bf(smbpasswd) program has several different functions, depending on whether it is run by the em(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 users SMB password on the local machine. This is similar to the way the bf(passwd (1)) program works. bf(smbpasswd) differs from how the bf(passwd) program works however in that it is not em(setuid root) but works in a client-server mode and communicates with a locally running url(bf(smbd))(smbd.8.html). As a consequence in order for this to succeed the url(bf(smbd))(smbd.8.html) daemon must be running on the local machine. On a UNIX machine the encrypted SMB passwords are usually stored in the url(bf(smbpasswd (5)))(smbpasswd.5.html) file. When run by an ordinary user with no options. bf(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 url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file) then just press the key when asked for your old password. bf(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 link((bf(-r)))(minusr) and link(bf(-U))(minusU) options below. When run by root, bf(smbpasswd) allows new users to be added and deleted in the url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file, as well as allows changes to the attributes of the user in this file to be made. When run by root, bf(smbpasswd) accesses the local url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file directly, thus enabling changes to be made even if url(bf(smbd))(smbd.8.html) is not running. label(OPTIONS) manpageoptions() startdit() label(minusa) dit(bf(-a)) This option specifies that the username following should be added to the local url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file, with the new password typed (type for the old password). This option is ignored if the username following already exists in the url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file and it is treated like a regular change password command. Note that the user to be added bf(must) 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 bf(smbpasswd) as root. label(minusx) dit(bf(-x)) This option specifies that the username following should be deleted from the local url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file. This option is only available when running bf(smbpasswd) as root. label(minusd) dit(bf(-d)) This option specifies that the username following should be em(disabled) in the local url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file. This is done by writing a em('D') flag into the account control space in the url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file. Once this is done all attempts to authenticate via SMB using this username will fail. If the url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file is in the 'old' format (pre-Samba 2.0 format) there is no space in the users password entry to write this information and so the user is disabled by writing 'X' characters into the password space in the url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file. See url(bf(smbpasswd (5)))(smbpasswd.5.html) for details on the 'old' and new password file formats. This option is only available when running bf(smbpasswd) as root. label(minuse) dit(bf(-e)) This option specifies that the username following should be em(enabled) in the local url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) 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 bf(smbpasswd) will prompt for a new password for this user, otherwise the account will be enabled by removing the em('D') flag from account control space in the url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file. See url(bf(smbpasswd (5)))(smbpasswd.5.html) for details on the 'old' and new password file formats. This option is only available when running bf(smbpasswd) as root. label(minusD) dit(bf(-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. label(minusn) dit(bf(-n)) This option specifies that the username following should have their password set to null (i.e. a blank password) in the local url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file. This is done by writing the string "NO PASSWORD" as the first part of the first password stored in the url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file. Note that to allow users to logon to a Samba server once the password has been set to "NO PASSWORD" in the url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file the administrator must set the following parameter in the [global] section of the url(bf(smb.conf))(smb.conf.5.html) file : url(null passwords = true)(smb.conf.5.html#nullpasswords) This option is only available when running bf(smbpasswd) as root. label(minusr) dit(bf(-r remote machine name)) This option allows a user to specify what machine they wish to change their password on. Without this parameter bf(smbpasswd) defaults to the local host. The em("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 url(bf(Samba))(samba.7.html) suite. See the link(bf(-R name resolve order))(minusR) 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 link(bf(-U username))(minusU) 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). em(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. label(minusR) dit(bf(-R name resolve order)) This option allows the user of smbclient to determine what name resolution services to use when looking up the NetBIOS name of the host being connected to. The options are :link("lmhosts")(lmhosts), link("host")(host), link("wins")(wins) and link("bcast")(bcast). They cause names to be resolved as follows : startit() label(lmhosts) it() bf(lmhosts) : Lookup an IP address in the Samba lmhosts file. label(host) it() bf(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 dependent. For instance on IRIX or Solaris, this may be controlled by the em(/etc/nsswitch.conf) file). label(wins) it() bf(wins) : Query a name with the IP address listed in the url(bf(wins server))(smb.conf.5.html#winsserver) parameter in the url(bf(smb.conf file))(smb.conf.5.html). If no WINS server has been specified this method will be ignored. label(bcast) it() bf(bcast) : Do a broadcast on each of the known local interfaces listed in the url(bf(interfaces))(smb.conf.5.html#interfaces) parameter in the smb.conf file. This is the least reliable of the name resolution methods as it depends on the target host being on a locally connected subnet. endit() If this parameter is not set then the name resolve order defined in the url(bf(smb.conf))(smb.conf.5.html) file parameter url(bf(name resolve order))(smb.conf.5.html#nameresolveorder) will be used. The default order is lmhosts, host, wins, bcast and without this parameter or any entry in the url(bf(smb.conf))(smb.conf.5.html) file the name resolution methods will be attempted in this order. label(minusm) dit(bf(-m)) This option tells bf(smbpasswd) that the account being changed is a em(MACHINE) account. Currently this is used when Samba is being used as an NT Primary Domain Controller. PDC support is not a supported feature in Samba2.0 but will become supported in a later release. If you wish to know more about using Samba as an NT PDC then please subscribe to the mailing list email(samba-ntdom@samba.org). This option is only available when running bf(smbpasswd) as root. label(minusj) dit(bf(-j DOMAIN)) This option is used to add a Samba server into a Windows NT Domain, as a Domain member capable of authenticating user accounts to any Domain Controller in the same way as a Windows NT Server. See the url(bf(security=domain))(smb.conf.5.html#security) option in the url(bf(smb.conf (5)))(smb.conf.5.html) man page. In order to be used in this way, the Administrator for the Windows NT Domain must have used the program em("Server Manager for Domains") to add the url(primary NetBIOS name)(smb.conf.5.html#netbiosname) of the Samba server as a member of the Domain. After this has been done, to join the Domain invoke bf(smbpasswd) with this parameter. bf(smbpasswd) will then look up the Primary Domain Controller for the Domain (found in the url(bf(smb.conf))(smb.conf.5.html) file in the parameter url(bf(password server))(smb.conf.5.html#passwordserver) and change the machine account password used to create the secure Domain communication. This password is then stored by bf(smbpasswd) in a file, read only by root, called tt(..mac) where tt() is the name of the Domain we are joining and tt() is the primary NetBIOS name of the machine we are running on. Once this operation has been performed the url(bf(smb.conf))(smb.conf.5.html) file may be updated to set the url(bf(security=domain))(smb.conf.5.html#security) option and all future logins to the Samba server will be authenticated to the Windows NT PDC. Note that even though the authentication is being done to the PDC all users accessing the Samba server must still have a valid UNIX account on that machine. This option is only available when running bf(smbpasswd) as root. label(minusU) dit(bf(-U username)) This option may only be used in conjunction with the link(bf(-r))(minusr) 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. label(minush) dit(bf(-h)) This option prints the help string for bf(smbpasswd), selecting the correct one for running as root or as an ordinary user. label(minuss) dit(bf(-s)) This option causes bf(smbpasswd) to be silent (i.e. not issue prompts) and to read it's old and new passwords from standard input, rather than from tt(/dev/tty) (like the bf(passwd (1)) program does). This option is to aid people writing scripts to drive bf(smbpasswd) label(username) dit(bf(username)) This specifies the username for all of the em(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 url(bf(smbpasswd))(smbpasswd.5.html) file. label(NOTES) manpagesection(NOTES) Since bf(smbpasswd) works in client-server mode communicating with a local url(bf(smbd))(smbd.8.html) for a non-root user then the bf(smbd) daemon must be running for this to work. A common problem is to add a restriction to the hosts that may access the bf(smbd) running on the local machine by specifying a url(bf("allow hosts"))(smb.conf.5.html#allowhosts) or url(bf("deny hosts"))(smb.conf.5.html#denyhosts) entry in the url(bf(smb.conf))(smb.conf.5.html) file and neglecting to allow em("localhost") access to the bf(smbd). In addition, the bf(smbpasswd) command is only useful if bf(Samba) has been set up to use encrypted passwords. See the file bf(ENCRYPTION.txt) in the docs directory for details on how to do this. label(VERSION) manpagesection(VERSION) This man page is correct for version 2.0 of the Samba suite. label(AUTHOR) manpageauthor() The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell email(samba@samba.org). 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 url(bf(ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/))(ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/)) and updated for the Samba2.0 release by Jeremy Allison. email(samba@samba.org). See url(bf(samba (7)))(samba.7.html) to find out how to get a full list of contributors and details on how to submit bug reports, comments etc.