KADMIN(1) General Commands Manual KADMIN(1)
NAME
kadmin - Kerberos V5 database administration program
SYNOPSIS
kadmin [-O | -N] [-r realm] [-p principal] [-q query]
[[-c cache_name] | [-k [-t keytab]] | -n] [-w password] [-s admin_server[:port]
kadmin.local [-r realm] [-p principal] [-q query]
[-d dbname] [-e "enc:salt ..."] [-m] [-x db_args]
DESCRIPTION
kadmin and kadmin.local are command-line interfaces to the Kerberos V5 KADM5 administration system. Both kadmin and kadmin.local provide
identical functionalities; the difference is that kadmin.local runs on the master KDC if the database is db2 and does not use Kerberos to
authenticate to the database. Except as explicitly noted otherwise, this man page will use kadmin to refer to both versions. kadmin pro-
vides for the maintenance of Kerberos principals, KADM5 policies, and service key tables (keytabs).
The remote version uses Kerberos authentication and an encrypted RPC, to operate securely from anywhere on the network. It authenticates
to the KADM5 server using the service principal kadmin/admin. If the credentials cache contains a ticket for the kadmin/admin principal,
and the -c credentials_cache option is specified, that ticket is used to authenticate to KADM5. Otherwise, the -p and -k options are used
to specify the client Kerberos principal name used to authenticate. Once kadmin has determined the principal name, it requests a kad-
min/admin Kerberos service ticket from the KDC, and uses that service ticket to authenticate to KADM5.
If the database is db2, the local client kadmin.local, is intended to run directly on the master KDC without Kerberos authentication. The
local version provides all of the functionality of the now obsolete kdb5_edit(8), except for database dump and load, which is now provided
by the kdb5_util(8) utility.
If the database is LDAP, kadmin.local need not be run on the KDC.
kadmin.local can be configured to log updates for incremental database propagation. Incremental propagation allows slave KDC servers to
receive principal and policy updates incrementally instead of receiving full dumps of the database. This facility can be enabled in the
kdc.conf file with the iprop_enable option. See the kdc.conf documentation for other options for tuning incremental propagation parame-
ters.
OPTIONS
-r realm
Use realm as the default database realm.
-p principal
Use principal to authenticate. Otherwise, kadmin will append "/admin" to the primary principal name of the default ccache, the
value of the USER environment variable, or the username as obtained with getpwuid, in order of preference.
-k Use a keytab to decrypt the KDC response instead of prompting for a password on the TTY. In this case, the default principal will
be host/hostname. If there is not a keytab specified with the -t option, then the default keytab will be used.
-t keytab
Use keytab to decrypt the KDC response. This can only be used with the -k option. -n Requests anonymous processing. Two types of
anonymous principals are supported. For fully anonymous Kerberos, configure pkinit on the KDC and configure pkinit_anchors in the
client's krb5.conf. Then use the -n option with a principal of the form @REALM (an empty principal name followed by the at-sign and
a realm name). If permitted by the KDC, an anonymous ticket will be returned. A second form of anonymous tickets is supported;
these realm-exposed tickets hide the identity of the client but not the client's realm. For this mode, use kinit -n with a normal
principal name. If supported by the KDC, the principal (but not realm) will be replaced by the anonymous principal. As of release
1.8, the MIT Kerberos KDC only supports fully anonymous operation.
-c credentials_cache
Use credentials_cache as the credentials cache. The credentials_cache should contain a service ticket for the kadmin/admin service;
it can be acquired with the kinit(1) program. If this option is not specified, kadmin requests a new service ticket from the KDC,
and stores it in its own temporary ccache.
-w password
Use password instead of prompting for one on the TTY. Note: placing the password for a Kerberos principal with administration
access into a shell script can be dangerous if unauthorized users gain read access to the script.
-q query
pass query directly to kadmin, which will perform query and then exit. This can be useful for writing scripts.
-d dbname
Specifies the name of the Kerberos database. This option does not apply to the LDAP database.
-s admin_server[:port]
Specifies the admin server which kadmin should contact.
-m Do not authenticate using a keytab. This option will cause kadmin to prompt for the master database password.
-e enc:salt_list
Sets the list of encryption types and salt types to be used for any new keys created.
-O Force use of old AUTH_GSSAPI authentication flavor.
-N Prevent fallback to AUTH_GSSAPI authentication flavor.
-x db_args
Specifies the database specific arguments.
Options supported for LDAP database are:
-x host=<hostname>
specifies the LDAP server to connect to by a LDAP URI.
-x binddn=<bind_dn>
specifies the DN of the object used by the administration server to bind to the LDAP server. This object should have the
read and write rights on the realm container, principal container and the subtree that is referenced by the realm.
-x bindpwd=<bind_password>
specifies the password for the above mentioned binddn. It is recommended not to use this option. Instead, the password can
be stashed using the stashsrvpw command of kdb5_ldap_util.
DATE FORMAT
Various commands in kadmin can take a variety of date formats, specifying durations or absolute times. Examples of valid formats are:
1 month ago
2 hours ago
400000 seconds ago
last year
this Monday
next Monday
yesterday
tomorrow
now
second Monday
a fortnight ago
3/31/92 10:00:07 PST
January 23, 1987 10:05pm
22:00 GMT
Dates which do not have the "ago" specifier default to being absolute dates, unless they appear in a field where a duration is expected.
In that case the time specifier will be interpreted as relative. Specifying "ago" in a duration may result in unexpected behavior.
COMMANDS
add_principal [options] newprinc
creates the principal newprinc, prompting twice for a password. If no policy is specified with the -policy option, and the policy
named "default" exists, then that policy is assigned to the principal; note that the assignment of the policy "default" only occurs
automatically when a principal is first created, so the policy "default" must already exist for the assignment to occur. This
assignment of "default" can be suppressed with the -clearpolicy option. This command requires the add privilege. This command has
the aliases addprinc and ank. The options are:
-x db_princ_args
Denotes the database specific options. The options for LDAP database are:
-x dn=<dn>
Specifies the LDAP object that will contain the Kerberos principal being created.
-x linkdn=<dn>
Specifies the LDAP object to which the newly created Kerberos principal object will point to.
-x containerdn=<container_dn>
Specifies the container object under which the Kerberos principal is to be created.
-x tktpolicy=<policy>
Associates a ticket policy to the Kerberos principal.
-expire expdate
expiration date of the principal
-pwexpire pwexpdate
password expiration date
-maxlife maxlife
maximum ticket life for the principal
-maxrenewlife maxrenewlife
maximum renewable life of tickets for the principal
-kvno kvno
explicitly set the key version number.
-policy policy
policy used by this principal. If no policy is supplied, then if the policy "default" exists and the -clearpolicy is not
also specified, then the policy "default" is used; otherwise, the principal will have no policy, and a warning message will
be printed.
-clearpolicy
-clearpolicy prevents the policy "default" from being assigned when -policy is not specified. This option has no effect if
the policy "default" does not exist.
{-|+}allow_postdated
-allow_postdated prohibits this principal from obtaining postdated tickets. (Sets the KRB5_KDB_DISALLOW_POSTDATED flag.)
+allow_postdated clears this flag.
{-|+}allow_forwardable
-allow_forwardable prohibits this principal from obtaining forwardable tickets. (Sets the KRB5_KDB_DISALLOW_FORWARDABLE
flag.) +allow_forwardable clears this flag.
{-|+}allow_renewable
-allow_renewable prohibits this principal from obtaining renewable tickets. (Sets the KRB5_KDB_DISALLOW_RENEWABLE flag.)
+allow_renewable clears this flag.
{-|+}allow_proxiable
-allow_proxiable prohibits this principal from obtaining proxiable tickets. (Sets the KRB5_KDB_DISALLOW_PROXIABLE flag.)
+allow_proxiable clears this flag.
{-|+}allow_dup_skey
-allow_dup_skey Disables user-to-user authentication for this principal by prohibiting this principal from obtaining a ses-
sion key for another user. (Sets the KRB5_KDB_DISALLOW_DUP_SKEY flag.) +allow_dup_skey clears this flag.
{-|+}requires_preauth
+requires_preauth requires this principal to preauthenticate before being allowed to kinit. (Sets the
KRB5_KDB_REQUIRES_PRE_AUTH flag.) -requires_preauth clears this flag.
{-|+}requires_hwauth
+requires_hwauth requires this principal to preauthenticate using a hardware device before being allowed to kinit. (Sets the
KRB5_KDB_REQUIRES_HW_AUTH flag.) -requires_hwauth clears this flag.
{-|+}ok_as_delegate
+ok_as_delegate sets the OK-AS-DELEGATE flag on tickets issued for use with this principal as the service, which clients may
use as a hint that credentials can and should be delegated when authenticating to the service. (Sets the KRB5_KDB_OK_AS_DEL-
EGATE flag.) -ok_as_delegate clears this flag.
{-|+}allow_svr
-allow_svr prohibits the issuance of service tickets for this principal. (Sets the KRB5_KDB_DISALLOW_SVR flag.) +allow_svr
clears this flag.
{-|+}allow_tgs_req
-allow_tgs_req specifies that a Ticket-Granting Service (TGS) request for a service ticket for this principal is not permit-
ted. This option is useless for most things. +allow_tgs_req clears this flag. The default is +allow_tgs_req. In effect,
-allow_tgs_req sets the KRB5_KDB_DISALLOW_TGT_BASED flag on the principal in the database.
{-|+}allow_tix
-allow_tix forbids the issuance of any tickets for this principal. +allow_tix clears this flag. The default is +allow_tix.
In effect, -allow_tix sets the KRB5_KDB_DISALLOW_ALL_TIX flag on the principal in the database.
{-|+}needchange
+needchange sets a flag in attributes field to force a password change; -needchange clears it. The default is -needchange.
In effect, +needchange sets the KRB5_KDB_REQUIRES_PWCHANGE flag on the principal in the database.
{-|+}password_changing_service
+password_changing_service sets a flag in the attributes field marking this as a password change service principal (useless
for most things). -password_changing_service clears the flag. This flag intentionally has a long name. The default is
-password_changing_service. In effect, +password_changing_service sets the KRB5_KDB_PWCHANGE_SERVICE flag on the principal
in the database.
-randkey
sets the key of the principal to a random value
-pw password
sets the key of the principal to the specified string and does not prompt for a password. Note: using this option in a
shell script can be dangerous if unauthorized users gain read access to the script.
-e "enc:salt ..."
uses the specified list of enctype-salttype pairs for setting the key of the principal. The quotes are necessary if there
are multiple enctype-salttype pairs. This will not function against kadmin daemons earlier than krb5-1.2.
EXAMPLE:
kadmin: addprinc tlyu/admin
WARNING: no policy specified for "tlyu/admin@BLEEP.COM";
defaulting to no policy.
Enter password for principal tlyu/admin@BLEEP.COM:
Re-enter password for principal tlyu/admin@BLEEP.COM:
Principal "tlyu/admin@BLEEP.COM" created.
kadmin:
kadmin: addprinc -x dn=cn=mwm_user,o=org mwm_user
WARNING: no policy specified for "mwm_user@BLEEP.COM";
defaulting to no policy.
Enter password for principal mwm_user@BLEEP.COM:
Re-enter password for principal mwm_user@BLEEP.COM:
Principal "mwm_user@BLEEP.COM" created.
kadmin:
ERRORS:
KADM5_AUTH_ADD (requires "add" privilege)
KADM5_BAD_MASK (shouldn't happen)
KADM5_DUP (principal exists already)
KADM5_UNK_POLICY (policy does not exist)
KADM5_PASS_Q_* (password quality violations)
delete_principal [-force] principal
deletes the specified principal from the database. This command prompts for deletion, unless the -force option is given. This com-
mand requires the delete privilege. Aliased to delprinc.
EXAMPLE:
kadmin: delprinc mwm_user
Are you sure you want to delete the principal
"mwm_user@BLEEP.COM"? (yes/no): yes
Principal "mwm_user@BLEEP.COM" deleted.
Make sure that you have removed this principal from
all ACLs before reusing.
kadmin:
ERRORS:
KADM5_AUTH_DELETE (requires "delete" privilege)
KADM5_UNK_PRINC (principal does not exist)
modify_principal [options] principal
modifies the specified principal, changing the fields as specified. The options are as above for add_principal, except that pass-
word changing and flags related to password changing are forbidden by this command. In addition, the option -clearpolicy will clear
the current policy of a principal. This command requires the modify privilege. Aliased to modprinc.
-x db_princ_args
Denotes the database specific options. The options for LDAP database are:
-x tktpolicy=<policy>
Associates a ticket policy to the Kerberos principal.
-x linkdn=<dn>
Associates a Kerberos principal with a LDAP object. This option is honored only if the Kerberos principal is not
already associated with a LDAP object.
-unlock
Unlocks a locked principal (one which has received too many failed authentication attempts without enough time between them
according to its password policy) so that it can successfully authenticate.
ERRORS:
KADM5_AUTH_MODIFY (requires "modify" privilege) KADM5_UNK_PRINC (principal does not exist) KADM5_UNK_POLICY (policy does not
exist) KADM5_BAD_MASK (shouldn't happen)
change_password [options] principal
changes the password of principal. Prompts for a new password if neither -randkey or -pw is specified. Requires the changepw priv-
ilege, or that the principal that is running the program to be the same as the one changed. Aliased to cpw. The following options
are available:
-randkey
sets the key of the principal to a random value
-pw password
set the password to the specified string. Not recommended.
-e "enc:salt ..."
uses the specified list of enctype-salttype pairs for setting the key of the principal. The quotes are necessary if there
are multiple enctype-salttype pairs. This will not function against kadmin daemons earlier than krb5-1.2.
-keepold
Keeps the previous kvno's keys around. This flag is usually not necessary except perhaps for TGS keys. Don't use this flag
unless you know what you're doing. This option is not supported for the LDAP database.
EXAMPLE:
kadmin: cpw systest
Enter password for principal systest@BLEEP.COM:
Re-enter password for principal systest@BLEEP.COM:
Password for systest@BLEEP.COM changed.
kadmin:
ERRORS:
KADM5_AUTH_MODIFY (requires the modify privilege)
KADM5_UNK_PRINC (principal does not exist)
KADM5_PASS_Q_* (password policy violation errors)
KADM5_PADD_REUSE (password is in principal's password
history)
KADM5_PASS_TOOSOON (current password minimum life not
expired)
purgekeys [-keepkvno oldest_kvno_to_keep] principal
purges previously retained old keys (e.g., from change_password -keepold) from principal. If -keepkvno is specified, then only
purges keys with kvnos lower than oldest_kvno_to_keep.
get_principal [-terse] principal
gets the attributes of principal. Requires the inquire privilege, or that the principal that is running the the program to be the
same as the one being listed. With the -terse option, outputs fields as quoted tab-separated strings. Alias getprinc.
EXAMPLES:
kadmin: getprinc tlyu/admin
Principal: tlyu/admin@BLEEP.COM
Expiration date: [never]
Last password change: Mon Aug 12 14:16:47 EDT 1996
Password expiration date: [none]
Maximum ticket life: 0 days 10:00:00
Maximum renewable life: 7 days 00:00:00
Last modified: Mon Aug 12 14:16:47 EDT 1996 (bjaspan/admin@BLEEP.COM)
Last successful authentication: [never]
Last failed authentication: [never]
Failed password attempts: 0
Number of keys: 2
Key: vno 1, DES cbc mode with CRC-32, no salt
Key: vno 1, DES cbc mode with CRC-32, Version 4
Attributes:
Policy: [none]
kadmin: getprinc -terse systest
systest@BLEEP.COM 3 86400 604800 1
785926535 753241234 785900000
tlyu/admin@BLEEP.COM 786100034 0 0
kadmin:
ERRORS:
KADM5_AUTH_GET (requires the get (inquire) privilege)
KADM5_UNK_PRINC (principal does not exist)
list_principals [expression]
Retrieves all or some principal names. Expression is a shell-style glob expression that can contain the wild-card characters ?, *,
and []'s. All principal names matching the expression are printed. If no expression is provided, all principal names are printed.
If the expression does not contain an "@" character, an "@" character followed by the local realm is appended to the expression.
Requires the list privilege. Alias listprincs, get_principals, get_princs.
EXAMPLES:
kadmin: listprincs test*
test3@SECURE-TEST.OV.COM
test2@SECURE-TEST.OV.COM
test1@SECURE-TEST.OV.COM
testuser@SECURE-TEST.OV.COM
kadmin:
get_strings principal
displays string attributes on principal. String attributes are used to supply per-principal configuration to some KDC plugin mod-
ules. Alias getstrs.
set_string principal key value
sets a string attribute on principal. Alias setstr.
del_string principal key
deletes a string attribute from principal. Alias delstr.
add_policy [options] policy
adds the named policy to the policy database. Requires the add privilege. Aliased to addpol. The following options are available:
-maxlife time
sets the maximum lifetime of a password
-minlife time
sets the minimum lifetime of a password
-minlength length
sets the minimum length of a password
-minclasses number
sets the minimum number of character classes allowed in a password
-history number
sets the number of past keys kept for a principal. This option is not supported for LDAP database
-maxfailure maxnumber
sets the maximum number of authentication failures before the principal is locked. Authentication failures are only tracked
for principals which require preauthentication.
-failurecountinterval failuretime
sets the allowable time between authentication failures. If an authentication failure happens after failuretime has elapsed
since the previous failure, the number of authentication failures is reset to 1. A failure count interval of 0 means for-
ever.
-lockoutduration lockouttime
sets the duration for which the principal is locked from authenticating if too many authentication failures occur without the
specified failure count interval elapsing. A duration of 0 means forever.
EXAMPLES:
kadmin: add_policy -maxlife "2 days" -minlength 5 guests
kadmin:
ERRORS:
KADM5_AUTH_ADD (requires the add privilege)
KADM5_DUP (policy already exists)
delete_policy [-force] policy
deletes the named policy. Prompts for confirmation before deletion. The command will fail if the policy is in use by any princi-
pals. Requires the delete privilege. Alias delpol.
EXAMPLE:
kadmin: del_policy guests
Are you sure you want to delete the policy "guests"?
(yes/no): yes
kadmin:
ERRORS:
KADM5_AUTH_DELETE (requires the delete privilege)
KADM5_UNK_POLICY (policy does not exist)
KADM5_POLICY_REF (reference count on policy is not zero)
modify_policy [options] policy
modifies the named policy. Options are as above for add_policy. Requires the modify privilege. Alias modpol.
ERRORS:
KADM5_AUTH_MODIFY (requires the modify privilege)
KADM5_UNK_POLICY (policy does not exist)
get_policy [-terse] policy
displays the values of the named policy. Requires the inquire privilege. With the -terse flag, outputs the fields as quoted
strings separated by tabs. Alias getpol.
EXAMPLES:
kadmin: get_policy admin
Policy: admin
Maximum password life: 180 days 00:00:00
Minimum password life: 00:00:00
Minimum password length: 6
Minimum number of password character classes: 2
Number of old keys kept: 5
Reference count: 17
kadmin: get_policy -terse admin
admin 15552000 0 6 2 5 17
kadmin:
ERRORS:
KADM5_AUTH_GET (requires the get privilege)
KADM5_UNK_POLICY (policy does not exist)
list_policies [expression]
Retrieves all or some policy names. Expression is a shell-style glob expression that can contain the wild-card characters ?, *, and
[]'s. All policy names matching the expression are printed. If no expression is provided, all existing policy names are printed.
Requires the list privilege. Alias listpols, get_policies, getpols.
EXAMPLES:
kadmin: listpols
test-pol
dict-only
once-a-min
test-pol-nopw
kadmin: listpols t*
test-pol
test-pol-nopw
kadmin:
ktadd [-k keytab] [-q] [-e keysaltlist]
[-norandkey] [[principal | -glob princ-exp] [...]
Adds a principal or all principals matching princ-exp to a keytab. It randomizes each principal's key in the process, to prevent a
compromised admin account from reading out all of the keys from the database. However, kadmin.local has the -norandkey option,
which leaves the keys and their version numbers unchanged, similar to the Kerberos V4 ext_srvtab command. That allows users to con-
tinue to use the passwords they know to login normally, while simultaneously allowing scripts to login to the same account using a
keytab. There is no significant security risk added since kadmin.local must be run by root on the KDC anyway.
Requires the inquire and changepw privileges. An entry for each of the principal's unique encryption types is added, ignoring mul-
tiple keys with the same encryption type but different salt types. If the -k argument is not specified, the default keytab
/etc/krb5.keytab is used. If the -q option is specified, less verbose status information is displayed.
The -glob option requires the list privilege. princ-exp follows the same rules described for the list_principals command.
EXAMPLE:
kadmin: ktadd -k /tmp/foo-new-keytab host/foo.mit.edu
Entry for principal host/foo.mit.edu@ATHENA.MIT.EDU with
kvno 3, encryption type DES-CBC-CRC added to keytab
WRFILE:/tmp/foo-new-keytab
kadmin:
ktremove [-k keytab] [-q] principal [kvno | all | old]
Removes entries for the specified principal from a keytab. Requires no permissions, since this does not require database access.
If the string "all" is specified, all entries for that principal are removed; if the string "old" is specified, all entries for that
principal except those with the highest kvno are removed. Otherwise, the value specified is parsed as an integer, and all entries
whose kvno match that integer are removed. If the -k argument is not specified, the default keytab /etc/krb5.keytab is used. If
the -q option is specified, less verbose status information is displayed.
EXAMPLE:
kadmin: ktremove -k /usr/local/var/krb5kdc/kadmind.keytab kadmin/admin
Entry for principal kadmin/admin with kvno 3 removed
from keytab WRFILE:/usr/local/var/krb5kdc/kadmind.keytab.
kadmin:
FILES
principal.db default name for Kerberos principal database
<dbname>.kadm5 KADM5 administrative database. (This would be "principal.kadm5", if you use the default database name.) Contains
policy information.
<dbname>.kadm5.lock lock file for the KADM5 administrative database. This file works backwards from most other lock files. I.e., kadmin
will exit with an error if this file does not exist.
Note: The above three files are specific to db2 database.
kadm5.acl file containing list of principals and their kadmin administrative privileges. See kadmind(8) for a description.
kadm5.keytab keytab file for kadmin/admin principal.
kadm5.dict file containing dictionary of strings explicitly disallowed as passwords.
HISTORY
The kadmin program was originally written by Tom Yu at MIT, as an interface to the OpenVision Kerberos administration program.
SEE ALSO
kerberos(1), kpasswd(1), kadmind(8)
BUGS
Command output needs to be cleaned up.
KADMIN(1)