Linux and user accounts

Linux and user accounts

By default, a new installation of Oracle Linux uses local user and group accounts for authentication, permissions handling, and access to resources. When working with local accounts for users and groups, you use three main commands: useradd , groupadd , and usermod . Through these commands and their different options, you can add or delete users and groups, as well as modify user or group settings.

About User and Group Accounts

To implement system authentication, Oracle Linux uses two types of accounts: user and group. Together, these accounts hold information such as passwords, home directories for users, login shells, group settings and memberships, and so on. The information is used to ensure that only authorized logins are granted access to the system. Users without credentials, or whose credentials do not match the information in these accounts, are locked out of the system.

By default, user and group information is located locally in the system. However, in an enterprise environment that might have hundreds of servers and thousands of users, user and group account information is better stored in a central repository rather than in files on individual servers. User and group information is configured on a central server and then retrieved through services such as the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or the Network Information Service (NIS). Central management of this information is more efficient than storing and configuring user and group information locally.

Where User and Group Information Is Stored Locally

Unless you select a different authentication mechanism during installation or use the authselect command to create an authentication profile, Oracle Linux verifies a user’s identity by using the information that is stored in the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files.

The /etc/passwd file stores account information for each user such as his or her unique user ID (or UID , which is an integer), user name, home directory, and login shell. A user logs in using his or her user name, but the operating system uses the associated UID. When the user logs in, he or she is placed in his or her home directory and his or her login shell runs.

The /etc/group file stores information about groups of users. A user also belongs to one or more groups, and each group can contain one or more users. If you can grant access privileges to a group, all members of the group receive the same access privileges. Each group account has a unique group ID ( GID , again an integer) and an associated group name.

By default, Oracle Linux implements the user private group ( UPG ) scheme where adding a user account also creates a corresponding UPG with the same name as the user, and of which the user is the only member.

By default, both users and groups use shadow passwords, which are cryptographically hashed and stored in /etc/shadow and /etc/gshadow respectively. These shadow password files are readable only by the administraor. The administrator can set a group password that a user must enter to become a member of the group. If a group does not have a password, a user can only join the group if the administrator adds that user as a member.

A user can use the newgrp command to log into a new group or to change the current group ID during a login section. If the user has a password, he or she can add group membership on a permanent basis. See the newgrp(1) manual page.

The /etc/login.defs file defines parameters for password aging and related security policies.

For more information about the content of these files, see the group(5) , gshadow(5) , login.defs(5) , passwd(5) , and shadow(5) manual pages.

Creating User Accounts

sudo useradd [options] username

The command prompts you to enter a password for the account. If you want to change the password non-interactively (for example, from a script), use the chpasswd command instead:

echo "username:password" | chpasswd

Alternatively, you can use the newusers command to create a number of user accounts at the same time.

For more information, see the chpasswd(8) , newusers(8) , passwd(1) , and useradd(8) manual pages.

To create users by using the web-based GUI, see Oracle Linux: Using the Cockpit Web Console.

Locking an Account

To lock a user’s account, use the passwd -l command.

To unlock the account, use the passwd -u command.

For more information, see the passwd(1) manual page.

Modifying or Deleting User Accounts

To modify a user account, use the usermod command.

sudo usermod [options] username

For example, to add a user to a supplementary group (other than the user’s default login group):

sudo usermod -aG groupname username

You can use the groups command to display the groups to which a user belongs, for example:

To delete a user’s account, use the userdel command:

For more information, see the groups(1) , userdel(8) and usermod(8) manual pages.

Changing Default Settings for User Accounts

To display the default settings for a user account, use the following command:

GROUP=100 HOME=/home INACTIVE=-1 EXPIRE= SHELL=/bin/bash SKEL=/etc/skel CREATE_MAIL_SPOOL=yes

INACTIVE : Specifies after how many days the system locks an account if a user’s password expires. If set to 0, the system locks the account immediately. If set to -1, the system does not lock the account.

SKEL : Defines a template directory, whose contents are copied to a newly created user’s home directory. The contents of this directory should match the default shell defined by SHELL .

You can specify options to useradd -D to change the default settings for user accounts. For example, to change the defaults for INACTIVE , HOME and SHELL :

sudo useradd -D -f 3 -b /home2 -s /bin/sh

If you change the default login shell, you would probably also create a new SKEL template directory that contains contents that are appropriate to the new shell.

If you specify /sbin/nologin for a user’s SHELL , that user cannot log into the system directly but processes can run with that user’s ID. This setting is typically used for services that run as users other than root .

The default settings are stored in the /etc/default/useradd file.

For more information, see Configuring Password Ageing and the useradd(8) manual page.

Creating Groups

To create a group, use the groupadd command.

sudo groupadd [options] groupname

Typically, you might want to use the -g option to specify the group ID (GID). For example:

sudo groupadd -g 1000 devgrp

For more information, see the groupadd(8) manual page.

Modifying or Deleting Groups

To modify a group, use the groupmod command:

sudo groupmod [options] username

To delete a user’s account, use the groupdel command:

For more information, see the groupdel(8) and groupmod(8) manual pages.

Configuring Group Access Modes to Directories

Users whose primary group is not a UPG have a umask of 0022 set by /etc/profile or /etc/bashrc , which prevents other users, including other members of the primary group, from modifying any file that the user owns.

A user whose primary group is a UPG has a umask of 0002. It is assumed that no other user has the same group.

To grant users in the same group write access to files within the same directory, change the group ownership on the directory to the group, and set the setgid bit on the directory:

sudo chgrp groupname directory sudo chmod g+s directory

Files that are created in such a directory have their group set to that of the directory rather than the primary group of the user who creates the file.

The restricted deletion bit prevents unprivileged users from removing or renaming a file in the directory unless they own either the file or the directory.

To set the restricted deletion bit on a directory:

For more information, see the chmod(1) manual page.

Configuring Password Ageing

Maximum number of days for which a password can be used before it must be changed. The default value is 99,999 days.

Minimum number of days that is allowed between password changes. The default value is 0 days.

Number of days warning that is given before a password expires. The default value is 7 days.

For more information, see the login.defs(5) manual page.

To change how long a user’s account can be inactive before it is locked, use the usermod command. For example, to set the inactivity period to 30 days:

sudo usermod -f 30 username

To change the default inactivity period for new user accounts, use the useradd command:

A value of -1 specifies that user accounts are not locked due to inactivity.

For more information, see the useradd(8) and usermod(8) manual pages.

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