Best way to create a user with no password
Solution 1
This works the way you described (of course you can specify whichever shell you'd like in place of /bin/bash
):
root# useradd temp_test1 -s /bin/bash -p '*'
root# su temp_test1
temp_test1#
After executing the above useradd
command, the following entry is in my /etc/shadow
file:
temp_test1:*:15842:0:99999:7:::
When using John Smith Optional's answer, the following will work:
root# useradd temp_test2 -s /sbin/nologin
root# su -s /bin/bash temp_test2
temp_test2#
EDIT: I'd like to point out that the difference is that you cannot su
into an account which has the shell specified as /sbin/nologin
unless you specify a usable shell when issuing the su
command:
root# useradd temp_test3 -s /sbin/nologin
root# su temp_test3
This account is currently not available.
root#
(Tested in CentOS 6.4 -- should work in a variety of distros).
Solution 2
useradd my_new_user -s /sbin/nologin
If a password is not specified, one is not created/account disabled.
John Smith Optional
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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John Smith Optional almost 2 years
What is the good way to create a user with no password? By no password, I mean an account, that would be usable only by the root account using the su/sudo commands (like the "nobody" user used by Apache or Nginx).
I've read that putting a * in the password field of the /etc/shadow file works but I'd like to know if there is a way to do it with the useradd command.
I thought of doing:
useradd my_new_user -s /sbin/nologin -p '*'
but I'm not sure the useradd command can be used this way. I haven't found any reference about it.
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cuonglm about 11 years"no password" means "don't have password" or "blank password"?
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s.co.tt about 11 yearsYou can't
su
into anologin
account without specifying a shell with thesu
command. -
Ryan about 4 yearsSure you can, you just need to specify a different shell:
su -s /bin/bash my_new_user