login.defs(5) — Linux manual page

NAME | DESCRIPTION | CROSS REFERENCES | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

LOGIN.DEFS(5)        File Formats and Configuration        LOGIN.DEFS(5)

NAME         top

       login.defs - shadow password suite configuration

DESCRIPTION         top

       The /etc/login.defs file defines the site-specific configuration
       for the shadow password suite. This file is required. Absence of
       this file will not prevent system operation, but will probably
       result in undesirable operation.

       This file is a readable text file, each line of the file
       describing one configuration parameter. The lines consist of a
       configuration name and value, separated by whitespace. Blank
       lines and comment lines are ignored. Comments are introduced with
       a "#" pound sign and the pound sign must be the first non-white
       character of the line.

       Parameter values may be of four types: strings, booleans,
       numbers, and long numbers. A string is comprised of any printable
       characters. A boolean should be either the value yes or no. An
       undefined boolean parameter or one with a value other than these
       will be given a no value. Numbers (both regular and long) may be
       either decimal values, octal values (precede the value with 0) or
       hexadecimal values (precede the value with 0x). The maximum value
       of the regular and long numeric parameters is machine-dependent.

       The following configuration items are provided:

       CHFN_RESTRICT (string)
           This parameter specifies which values in the gecos field of
           the /etc/passwd file may be changed by regular users using
           the chfn program. It can be any combination of letters f, r,
           w, h, for Full name, Room number, Work phone, and Home phone,
           respectively. For backward compatibility, yes is equivalent
           to rwh and no is equivalent to frwh. If not specified, only
           the superuser can make any changes. The most restrictive
           setting is better achieved by not installing chfn SUID.

       CONSOLE_GROUPS (string)
           List of groups to add to the user's supplementary groups set
           when logging in on the console (as determined by the CONSOLE
           setting). Default is none.

           Use with caution - it is possible for users to gain permanent
           access to these groups, even when not logged in on the
           console.

       CREATE_HOME (boolean)
           Indicate if a home directory should be created by default for
           new users.

           This setting does not apply to system users, and can be
           overridden on the command line.

       DEFAULT_HOME (boolean)
           Indicate if login is allowed if we can't cd to the home
           directory. Default is no.

           If set to yes, the user will login in the root (/) directory
           if it is not possible to cd to her home directory.

       ENCRYPT_METHOD (string)
           This defines the system default encryption algorithm for
           encrypting passwords (if no algorithm are specified on the
           command line).

           It can take one of these values: DES (default), MD5, SHA256,
           SHA512. MD5 and DES should not be used for new hashes, see
           crypt(5) for recommendations.

           Note: this parameter overrides the MD5_CRYPT_ENAB variable.

           Note: This only affect the generation of group passwords. The
           generation of user passwords is done by PAM and subject to
           the PAM configuration. It is recommended to set this variable
           consistently with the PAM configuration.

       ENV_HZ (string)
           If set, it will be used to define the HZ environment variable
           when a user login. The value must be preceded by HZ=. A
           common value on Linux is HZ=100.

           The HZ environment variable is only set when the user (the
           superuser) logs in with sulogin.

       ENV_PATH (string)
           If set, it will be used to define the PATH environment
           variable when a regular user login. The value is a colon
           separated list of paths (for example /bin:/usr/bin) and can
           be preceded by PATH=. The default value is
           PATH=/bin:/usr/bin.

       ENV_SUPATH (string)
           If set, it will be used to define the PATH environment
           variable when the superuser login. The value is a colon
           separated list of paths (for example
           /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin) and can be preceded by PATH=.
           The default value is PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin.

       ERASECHAR (number)
           Terminal ERASE character (010 = backspace, 0177 = DEL).

           The value can be prefixed "0" for an octal value, or "0x" for
           an hexadecimal value.

       FAIL_DELAY (number)
           Delay in seconds before being allowed another attempt after a
           login failure.

       FAKE_SHELL (string)
           If set, login will execute this shell instead of the users'
           shell specified in /etc/passwd.

       GID_MAX (number), GID_MIN (number)
           Range of group IDs used for the creation of regular groups by
           useradd, groupadd, or newusers.

           The default value for GID_MIN (resp.  GID_MAX) is 1000 (resp.
           60000).

       HOME_MODE (number)
           The mode for new home directories. If not specified, the
           UMASK is used to create the mode.

           useradd and newusers use this to set the mode of the home
           directory they create.

       HUSHLOGIN_FILE (string)
           If defined, this file can inhibit all the usual chatter
           during the login sequence. If a full pathname is specified,
           then hushed mode will be enabled if the user's name or shell
           are found in the file. If not a full pathname, then hushed
           mode will be enabled if the file exists in the user's home
           directory.

       KILLCHAR (number)
           Terminal KILL character (025 = CTRL/U).

           The value can be prefixed "0" for an octal value, or "0x" for
           an hexadecimal value.

       LASTLOG_UID_MAX (number)
           Highest user ID number for which the lastlog entries should
           be updated. As higher user IDs are usually tracked by remote
           user identity and authentication services there is no need to
           create a huge sparse lastlog file for them.

           No LASTLOG_UID_MAX option present in the configuration means
           that there is no user ID limit for writing lastlog entries.

       LOG_OK_LOGINS (boolean)
           Enable logging of successful logins.

       LOG_UNKFAIL_ENAB (boolean)
           Enable display of unknown usernames when login failures are
           recorded.

           Note: logging unknown usernames may be a security issue if an
           user enter her password instead of her login name.

       LOGIN_RETRIES (number)
           Maximum number of login retries in case of bad password.

           This will most likely be overridden by PAM, since the default
           pam_unix module has its own built in of 3 retries. However,
           this is a safe fallback in case you are using an
           authentication module that does not enforce PAM_MAXTRIES.

       LOGIN_TIMEOUT (number)
           Max time in seconds for login.

       MAIL_DIR (string)
           The mail spool directory. This is needed to manipulate the
           mailbox when its corresponding user account is modified or
           deleted. If not specified, a compile-time default is used.
           The parameter CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL in /etc/default/useradd
           determines whether the mail spool should be created.

       MAIL_FILE (string)
           Defines the location of the users mail spool files relatively
           to their home directory.

       The MAIL_DIR and MAIL_FILE variables are used by useradd,
       usermod, and userdel to create, move, or delete the user's mail
       spool.

       MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP (number)
           Maximum members per group entry. When the maximum is reached,
           a new group entry (line) is started in /etc/group (with the
           same name, same password, and same GID).

           The default value is 0, meaning that there are no limits in
           the number of members in a group.

           This feature (split group) permits to limit the length of
           lines in the group file. This is useful to make sure that
           lines for NIS groups are not larger than 1024 characters.

           If you need to enforce such limit, you can use 25.

           Note: split groups may not be supported by all tools (even in
           the Shadow toolsuite). You should not use this variable
           unless you really need it.

       MD5_CRYPT_ENAB (boolean)
           Indicate if passwords must be encrypted using the MD5-based
           algorithm. If set to yes, new passwords will be encrypted
           using the MD5-based algorithm compatible with the one used by
           recent releases of FreeBSD. It supports passwords of
           unlimited length and longer salt strings. Set to no if you
           need to copy encrypted passwords to other systems which don't
           understand the new algorithm. Default is no.

           This variable is superseded by the ENCRYPT_METHOD variable or
           by any command line option used to configure the encryption
           algorithm.

           This variable is deprecated. You should use ENCRYPT_METHOD.

           Note: This only affect the generation of group passwords. The
           generation of user passwords is done by PAM and subject to
           the PAM configuration. It is recommended to set this variable
           consistently with the PAM configuration.

       NONEXISTENT (string)
           If a system account intentionally does not have a home
           directory that exists, this string can be provided in the
           /etc/passwd entry for the account to indicate this. The
           result is that pwck will not emit a spurious warning for this
           account.

       PASS_MAX_DAYS (number)
           The maximum number of days a password may be used. If the
           password is older than this, a password change will be
           forced. If not specified, -1 will be assumed (which disables
           the restriction).

       PASS_MIN_DAYS (number)
           The minimum number of days allowed between password changes.
           Any password changes attempted sooner than this will be
           rejected. If not specified, 0 will be assumed (which disables
           the restriction).

       PASS_WARN_AGE (number)
           The number of days warning given before a password expires. A
           zero means warning is given only upon the day of expiration,
           a negative value means no warning is given. If not specified,
           no warning will be provided.

       PASS_MAX_DAYS, PASS_MIN_DAYS and PASS_WARN_AGE are only used at
       the time of account creation. Any changes to these settings won't
       affect existing accounts.

       SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS (number), SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS (number)
           When ENCRYPT_METHOD is set to SHA256 or SHA512, this defines
           the number of SHA rounds used by the encryption algorithm by
           default (when the number of rounds is not specified on the
           command line).

           With a lot of rounds, it is more difficult to brute forcing
           the password. But note also that more CPU resources will be
           needed to authenticate users.

           If not specified, the libc will choose the default number of
           rounds (5000), which is orders of magnitude too low for
           modern hardware.

           The values must be inside the 1000-999,999,999 range.

           If only one of the SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS or
           SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS values is set, then this value will be
           used.

           If SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS > SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS, the highest
           value will be used.

           Note: This only affect the generation of group passwords. The
           generation of user passwords is done by PAM and subject to
           the PAM configuration. It is recommended to set this variable
           consistently with the PAM configuration.

       SULOG_FILE (string)
           If defined, all su activity is logged to this file.

       SU_NAME (string)
           If defined, the command name to display when running "su -".
           For example, if this is defined as "su" then a "ps" will
           display the command is "-su". If not defined, then "ps" would
           display the name of the shell actually being run, e.g.
           something like "-sh".

       SUB_GID_MIN (number), SUB_GID_MAX (number), SUB_GID_COUNT
       (number)
           If /etc/subuid exists, the commands useradd and newusers
           (unless the user already have subordinate group IDs) allocate
           SUB_GID_COUNT unused group IDs from the range SUB_GID_MIN to
           SUB_GID_MAX for each new user.

           The default values for SUB_GID_MIN, SUB_GID_MAX,
           SUB_GID_COUNT are respectively 100000, 600100000 and 65536.

       SUB_UID_MIN (number), SUB_UID_MAX (number), SUB_UID_COUNT
       (number)
           If /etc/subuid exists, the commands useradd and newusers
           (unless the user already have subordinate user IDs) allocate
           SUB_UID_COUNT unused user IDs from the range SUB_UID_MIN to
           SUB_UID_MAX for each new user.

           The default values for SUB_UID_MIN, SUB_UID_MAX,
           SUB_UID_COUNT are respectively 100000, 600100000 and 65536.

       SYS_GID_MAX (number), SYS_GID_MIN (number)
           Range of group IDs used for the creation of system groups by
           useradd, groupadd, or newusers.

           The default value for SYS_GID_MIN (resp.  SYS_GID_MAX) is 101
           (resp.  GID_MIN-1).

       SYS_UID_MAX (number), SYS_UID_MIN (number)
           Range of user IDs used for the creation of system users by
           useradd or newusers.

           The default value for SYS_UID_MIN (resp.  SYS_UID_MAX) is 101
           (resp.  UID_MIN-1).

       SYSLOG_SG_ENAB (boolean)
           Enable "syslog" logging of sg activity.

       SYSLOG_SU_ENAB (boolean)
           Enable "syslog" logging of su activity - in addition to sulog
           file logging.

       TTYGROUP (string), TTYPERM (string)
           The terminal permissions: the login tty will be owned by the
           TTYGROUP group, and the permissions will be set to TTYPERM.

           TTYGROUP can be either the name of a group or a numeric group
           identifier.

           If TTYGROUP is not defined, then the group ownership of the
           terminal is set to the user's primary group. If TTYPERM is
           not defined, then the permissions are set to 0600.

           If you have a write program which is "setgid" to a special
           group which owns the terminals, define TTYGROUP to the group
           number and TTYPERM to 0620. Otherwise leave TTYGROUP
           commented out and assign TTYPERM to either 622 or 600.

       TTYTYPE_FILE (string)
           If defined, file which maps tty line to TERM environment
           parameter. Each line of the file is in a format something
           like "vt100 tty01".

       UID_MAX (number), UID_MIN (number)
           Range of user IDs used for the creation of regular users by
           useradd or newusers.

           The default value for UID_MIN (resp.  UID_MAX) is 1000 (resp.
           60000).

       UMASK (number)
           The file mode creation mask is initialized to this value. If
           not specified, the mask will be initialized to 022.

           useradd and newusers use this mask to set the mode of the
           home directory they create if HOME_MODE is not set.

           It is also used by pam_umask as the default umask value.

       USERDEL_CMD (string)
           If defined, this command is run when removing a user. It
           should remove any at/cron/print jobs etc. owned by the user
           to be removed (passed as the first argument).

           The return code of the script is not taken into account.

           Here is an example script, which removes the user's cron, at
           and print jobs:

               #! /bin/sh

               # Check for the required argument.
               if [ $# != 1 ]; then
                    echo "Usage: $0 username"
                    exit 1
               fi

               # Remove cron jobs.
               crontab -r -u $1

               # Remove at jobs.
               # Note that it will remove any jobs owned by the same UID,
               # even if it was shared by a different username.
               AT_SPOOL_DIR=/var/spool/cron/atjobs
               find $AT_SPOOL_DIR -name "[^.]*" -type f -user $1 -delete \;

               # Remove print jobs.
               lprm $1

               # All done.
               exit 0

       USERGROUPS_ENAB (boolean)
           If set to yes, userdel will remove the user's group if it
           contains no more members, and useradd will create by default
           a group with the name of the user.

CROSS REFERENCES         top

       The following cross references show which programs in the shadow
       password suite use which parameters.

       chfn
           CHFN_RESTRICT

       chgpasswd
           ENCRYPT_METHOD MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP MD5_CRYPT_ENAB
           SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS

       chpasswd
           SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS

       gpasswd
           ENCRYPT_METHOD MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP MD5_CRYPT_ENAB
           SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS

       groupadd
           GID_MAX GID_MIN MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP SYS_GID_MAX SYS_GID_MIN

       groupdel
           MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP

       groupmems
           MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP

       groupmod
           MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP

       grpck
           MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP

       grpconv
           MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP

       grpunconv
           MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP

       lastlog
           LASTLOG_UID_MAX

       login
           CONSOLE_GROUPS DEFAULT_HOME ERASECHAR FAIL_DELAY FAKE_SHELL
           HUSHLOGIN_FILE KILLCHAR LOGIN_RETRIES LOGIN_TIMEOUT
           LOG_OK_LOGINS LOG_UNKFAIL_ENAB TTYGROUP TTYPERM TTYTYPE_FILE
           USERGROUPS_ENAB

       newgrp / sg
           SYSLOG_SG_ENAB

       newusers
           ENCRYPT_METHOD GID_MAX GID_MIN MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP
           MD5_CRYPT_ENAB HOME_MODE PASS_MAX_DAYS PASS_MIN_DAYS
           PASS_WARN_AGE SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS
           SUB_GID_COUNT SUB_GID_MAX SUB_GID_MIN SUB_UID_COUNT
           SUB_UID_MAX SUB_UID_MIN SYS_GID_MAX SYS_GID_MIN SYS_UID_MAX
           SYS_UID_MIN UID_MAX UID_MIN UMASK

       pwck
           PASS_MAX_DAYS PASS_MIN_DAYS PASS_WARN_AGE

       pwconv
           PASS_MAX_DAYS PASS_MIN_DAYS PASS_WARN_AGE

       su
           CONSOLE_GROUPS DEFAULT_HOME ENV_PATH ENV_SUPATH SULOG_FILE
           SU_NAME SYSLOG_SU_ENAB

       sulogin
           ENV_HZ

       useradd
           CREATE_HOME GID_MAX GID_MIN HOME_MODE LASTLOG_UID_MAX
           MAIL_DIR MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP PASS_MAX_DAYS PASS_MIN_DAYS
           PASS_WARN_AGE SUB_GID_COUNT SUB_GID_MAX SUB_GID_MIN
           SUB_UID_COUNT SUB_UID_MAX SUB_UID_MIN SYS_GID_MAX SYS_GID_MIN
           SYS_UID_MAX SYS_UID_MIN UID_MAX UID_MIN UMASK

       userdel
           MAIL_DIR MAIL_FILE MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP USERDEL_CMD
           USERGROUPS_ENAB

       usermod
           LASTLOG_UID_MAX MAIL_DIR MAIL_FILE MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP

BUGS         top

       Much of the functionality that used to be provided by the shadow
       password suite is now handled by PAM. Thus, /etc/login.defs is no
       longer used by passwd(1), or less used by login(1), and su(1).
       Please refer to the corresponding PAM configuration files
       instead.

SEE ALSO         top

       login(1), passwd(1), su(1), passwd(5), shadow(5), pam(8).

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the shadow-utils (utilities for managing
       accounts and shadow password files) project.  Information about
       the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow⟩.  If you have a bug
       report for this manual page, send it to
       pkg-shadow-devel@alioth-lists.debian.net.  This page was obtained
       from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow⟩ on 2023-12-22.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2023-12-15.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

shadow-utils 4.11.1            12/22/2023                  LOGIN.DEFS(5)

Pages that refer to this page: chfn(1)chfn(1@@shadow-utils)chsh(1)chsh(1@@shadow-utils)getsubids(1)login(1)login(1@@shadow-utils)newgidmap(1)newuidmap(1)runuser(1)su(1)su(1@@shadow-utils)securetty(5)subgid(5)subuid(5)agetty(8)chgpasswd(8)chpasswd(8)groupadd(8)groupmod(8)newusers(8)pam_unix(8)pam_usertype(8)pwconv(8)useradd(8)userdel(8)usermod(8)