xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/passwd/passwd.1 (revision 05c7a37afb48ddd5ee1bd921a5d46fe59cc70b15)
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32.\"	@(#)passwd.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\"
34.Dd June 6, 1993
35.Dt PASSWD 1
36.Os BSD 4
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm passwd, yppasswd
39.Nd modify a user's password
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm passwd
42.Op Fl l
43.Op Ar user
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45.Nm Passwd
46changes the user's local, Kerberos, or NIS password.  First, the user is prompted for their
47current password.
48If the current password is correctly typed, a new password is
49requested.
50The new password must be entered twice to avoid typing errors.
51.Pp
52The new password should be at least six characters long and not
53purely alphabetic.
54Its total length must be less than
55.Dv _PASSWORD_LEN
56(currently 128 characters).
57Numbers, upper case letters and meta characters
58are encouraged.
59.Pp
60Once the password has been verified,
61.Nm passwd
62communicates the new password information to
63the Kerberos authenticating host.
64.Bl -tag -width flag
65.It Fl l
66This option causes the password to be updated only in the local
67password file, and not with the Kerberos database.
68When changing only the local password,
69.Xr pwd_mkdb  8
70is used to update the password databases.
71.El
72.Pp
73To change another user's Kerberos password, one must first
74run
75.Xr kinit 1
76followed by
77.Xr passwd 1 .
78The super-user is not required to provide a user's current password
79if only the local password is modified.
80.Sh NIS INTERACTION
81.Nm Passwd
82has built-in support for NIS. If a user exists in the NIS password
83database but does not exist locally,
84.Nm passwd
85automatically switches into ``yppasswd'' mode. If the specified
86user does not exist in either the local password database of the
87NIS password maps,
88.Nm passwd
89returns an error.
90.Pp
91When changing an NIS password, unprivileged users are required to provide
92their old password for authentication (the
93.Xr rpc.yppasswdd 8
94daemon requires the original password before
95it will allow any changes to the NIS password maps).
96This restriction applies even to the
97super-user, with one important exception: the password authentication is
98bypassed for the super-user on the NIS master server. This means that
99the super-user on the NIS master server can make unrestricted changes to
100anyone's NIS password. The super-user on NIS client systems and NIS slave
101servers still needs to provide a password before the update will be processed.
102.Pp
103The following additional options are supported for use with NIS:
104.Bl -tag -width flag
105.It Fl y
106The
107.Fl y
108flag overrides
109.Nm passwd 's
110checking heuristics and forces
111it into NIS mode.
112.It Fl l
113When NIS is enabled, the
114.Fl l
115flag can be used to force
116.Nm passwd
117into ``local only'' mode. This flag can be used to change the entry
118for a local user when an NIS user exists when the same login name.
119For example, you will sometimes find entries for system ``placeholder''
120users such as
121.Pa bin
122or
123.Pa daemon
124in both the NIS password maps and the local user database. By
125default,
126.Nm passwd
127will try to change the NIS password. The
128.Fl l
129flag can be used to change the local password instead.
130.It Fl d Ar domain
131Specify what domain to use when changing an NIS password. By default,
132.Nm passwd
133assumes that the system default domain should be used. This flag is
134primarily for use by the superuser on the NIS master server: a single
135NIS server can support multiple domains. It is also possible that the
136domainname on the NIS master may not be set (it is not necessary for
137an NIS server to also be a client) in which case the
138.Nm passwd
139command needs to be told what domain to operate on.
140.It Fl s Ar host
141Specify the name of an NIS server. This option, in conjunction
142with the
143.Fl d
144option, can be used to change an NIS password on a non-local NIS
145server. When a domain is specified with the
146.Fl d
147option and
148.Nm passwd
149is unable to determine the name of the NIS master server (possibly because
150the local domainname isn't set), the name of the NIS master is assumed to
151be ``localhost''. This can be overriden with the
152.Fl s
153flag. The specified hostname need not be the name of an NIS master: the
154name of the NIS master for a given map can be determined by querying any
155NIS server (master or slave) in a domain, so specifying the name of a
156slave server will work equally well.
157.Pp
158.It Fl o
159Do not automatically override the password authentication checks for the
160super-user on the NIS master server; assume 'old' mode instead. This
161flag is of limited practical use but is useful for testing.
162.El
163.Sh FILES
164.Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd -compact
165.It Pa /etc/master.passwd
166The user database
167.It Pa /etc/passwd
168A Version 7 format password file
169.It Pa /etc/passwd.XXXXXX
170Temporary copy of the password file
171.El
172.Sh SEE ALSO
173.Xr chpass 1 ,
174.Xr kerberos 1 ,
175.Xr kinit 1 ,
176.Xr login 1 ,
177.Xr passwd 5 ,
178.Xr kpasswdd 8 ,
179.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
180.Xr vipw 8
181.Rs
182.%A Robert Morris
183.%A Ken Thompson
184.%T "UNIX password security"
185.Re
186.Sh NOTES
187The
188.Xr yppasswd 1
189command is really only a link to
190.Nm passwd .
191.Sh HISTORY
192A
193.Nm passwd
194command appeared in
195.At v6 .
196