userdb.4 (2012 03)

u
userdb(4) userdb(4)
NAME
userdb - user database for per-user information
SYNOPSIS
/var/adm/userdb
DESCRIPTION
The user database is used for storing per-user information. It consists of the
/var/adm/userdb
direc-
tory and the files within it. Each file name is a two-digit hexadecimal number from
00 to ff. The direc-
tory and files are created either at installation time or by the
userdbck command.
The per-user information resides in user entries in the database, and consists of any number of
attribute
=value pairs, which are used to define the behavior of configurable features. A per-user value in
/var/adm/userdb
overrides any corresponding system-wide default configured in the
/etc/default/security
file, as described in security (4).
The
/etc/security.dsc
file indicates which attributes can be configured with a per-user value in
/var/adm/userdb
. This list includes the following attributes which are described in security (4):
ALLOW_NULL_PASSWORD
Allow or do not allow null passwords.
AUDIT_FLAG Audit or do not audit users.
AUTH_MAXTRIES Maximum number of authentication failures allowed.
DISPLAY_LAST_LOGIN
Display or do not display last login information.
LOGIN_TIMES Restrict login time periods.
MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH
Minimum password length.
NUMBER_OF_LOGINS_ALLOWED
Number of simultaneous logins allowed per user.
OVERRIDE_SYSDEF_PWAGE
Override reading system default password aging values from
the
/etc/default/security
file during a password
change.
PASSWORD_HISTORY_DEPTH
Password history depth.
PASSWORD_MIN_LOWER_CASE_CHARS
Minimum number of lower case characters allowed in a
password.
PASSWORD_MIN_UPPER_CASE_CHARS
Minimum number of upper case characters allowed in a
password.
PASSWORD_MIN_DIGIT_CHARS
Minimum number of digit characters allowed in a password.
PASSWORD_MIN_SPECIAL_CHARS
Minimum number of special characters allowed in a password.
UMASK Define umask for file creation.
Notes
When defining attributes, first configure default values in
/etc/default/security
, as described in
security (4), and then configure per-user exceptions in the user database,
/var/adm/userdb.
In addition to the configurable attributes, there are internal attributes that are not user configurable and
are normally modified only by programs that enforce system security. The file
/etc/security.dsc
indicates which attributes are configurable and which are internal.
Use the
userdbck command to verify or fix information in the user database, /var/adm/userdb.
To disable the user database, create a file called
/var/adm/userdb/USERDB.DISABLED
. This
causes all database reads and writes to return an error code indicating that the database is disabled and
should be ignored. Note that, if the user database is disabled for a long period and then re-enabled, it
will contain stale data. This can cause unwanted side effects.
WARNINGS
Use the
userdbset command to modify information in /var/adm/userdb. Do not use a text editor,
because the database contains checksums and other binary data, and editors do not follow the file locking
conventions that are used to control access to the database.
NFS mounting this database is not supported.
HP-UX 11i Version 3: March 2012 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1