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

名称

login.defs - 影子密码套件配置

描述

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.

This configuration file controls the behavior of system tools for user and group management. The parameters may be used by shadow-utils programs, PAM modules, and other system components. The actual behavior depends on the system configuration and which authentication mechanisms are enabled.

提供如下配置项:

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.

CREATE_HOME (boolean)

指示是否应该为新用户默认创建主目录。

此设置并不应用到系统用户,并且可以使用命令行覆盖。

DEFAULT_HOME (boolean)

如果不能 cd 到主目录时,说明是否允许登录。默认是否。

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 is specified on the command line).

It can take one of these values: SHA256, SHA512 (default), YESCRYPT. See crypt(5) for recommendations.

Note: this only affects 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.

History: This variable is used by other programs, which may still default to unsafe algorithms such as DES. To avoid using unsafe algorithms, the variable should always be specified.

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.

FAIL_DELAY (number)

登录失败后,等待多少秒才再允许登录。

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.

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_UNKFAIL_ENAB (boolean)

在记录到登录失败时,允许记录未知用户名。

注意:如果用户不小心将密码输入到了登录名中,记录未知用户名可能是一个安全隐患。

LOGIN_RETRIES (number)

密码错误时,重试的最大次数。

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)

最大登录时间(以秒为单位)。

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)

定义用户邮箱文件的位置(相对于主目录)。

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).

默认值是 0,意味着组中的成员数没有限制。

此功能(分割组)允许限制组文件中的行长度。这对于确保 NIS 组的行比长于 1024 字符。

如果要强制这个限制,可以使用 25。

注意:分割组可能不受所有工具的支持(甚至在 Shadow 工具集中)。您不应该使用这个变量,除非真的需要。

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)

一个密码可以使用的最大天数。如果密码比这旧,将会强迫更改密码。如果不指定,就假定为 -1,这会禁用这个限制。

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 value of -1 means no warning is given. If not specified, no warning will be provided.

PASS_MAX_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 force 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.

值必须在 1000 - 999,999,999 之间。

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.

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_GID_DETERMINISTIC (boolean)

If set to yes, the commands useradd, usermod, and newusers will calculate subordinate GID ranges deterministically based on the user's UID instead of searching for the next free range. The formula used is:
      start = SUB_GID_MIN + ((UID - UID_MIN) * SUB_GID_COUNT)
      end   = start + SUB_GID_COUNT - 1

This ensures the same UID always receives the same subordinate GID range on every system, making it suitable for environments with centralized user management (LDAP, NIS, etc.) or synchronized UIDs across systems.

If SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC is enabled, you can use usermod --add-subgids -S to produce deterministic subgids.

WARNING: Because UID_MIN is used to calculate the ranges, any change of UID_MIN will change the ranges calculated. SUB_GID_COUNT is used to calculate the ranges, any change of SUB_GID_COUNT will change the ranges calculated. Users with identities less than UID_MIN are incompatible with SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC, but can still be set manually.

WARNING: Do not mix deterministic and linear (default) allocation on the same system or across systems sharing /etc/subgid via network storage (NFS, etc.). Mixing allocation methods will cause subordinate ID range conflicts and overlaps .

The default value for SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC is no.

Range Calculation Examples

With default configuration (UID_MIN=1000, SUB_GID_MIN=100000, SUB_GID_COUNT=65536):

UID Calculation Subordinate GID Range
1000 100000 + ((1000-1000) * 65536) 100000-165535
1001 100000 + ((1001-1000) * 65536) 165536-231071
1002 100000 + ((1002-1000) * 65536) 231072-296607
1100 100000 + ((1100-1000) * 65536) 6653600-6719135

Subordinate ID Space Planning

When planning subordinate ID allocation, calculate the maximum number of users the space can accommodate:

      capacity = (SUB_GID_MAX - SUB_GID_MIN) / SUB_GID_COUNT

With default values: (600100000 - 100000) / 65536 ≈ 9155 users.

For high-density environments with many users and smaller allocations:

        SUB_GID_COUNT  4096
        SUB_GID_MIN    100000
        SUB_GID_MAX    10000000

This gives: (10000000 - 100000) / 4096 ≈ 2417 users.

UNSAFE_SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC_WRAP (boolean)

WARNING: SECURITY RISK - MAY CAUSE RANGE OVERLAPS AND PRIVILEGE ESCALATION!

Only effective when SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC is set to yes.

When set to yes (WRAP MODE), allows the deterministic range calculation to wrap around using modulo arithmetic when a UID would overflow the configured subordinate ID space. The subordinate ID space is treated as a ring buffer.

WARNING: Range overlaps can lead to container escapes and privilege escalation. For example, with SUB_GID_MIN=100000, SUB_GID_MAX=200000, SUB_GID_COUNT=65536, User A (UID 1000) gets range [100000, 165535] and User B (UID 1001) wraps and overlaps with User A. User B's container can now access files from User A's containers.

Use only in development, testing, or tightly constrained lab environments.

When set to no (default), any arithmetic overflow or range exceeding SUB_GID_MAX is a hard error. This guarantees non-overlapping, monotonic allocation.

The default value for UNSAFE_SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC_WRAP is no.

SUB_GID_STORE_BY_UID (boolean)

If set to yes, subordinate group ID entries in /etc/subgid are stored using the numeric user ID rather than the username. The default value is no.

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.

SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC (boolean)

If set to yes, the commands useradd, usermod, and newusers will calculate subordinate UID ranges deterministically based on the user's UID instead of searching for the next free range. The formula used is:
      start = SUB_UID_MIN + ((UID - UID_MIN) * SUB_UID_COUNT)
      end   = start + SUB_UID_COUNT - 1

This ensures the same UID always receives the same subordinate UID range on every system, making it suitable for environments with centralized user management (LDAP, NIS, etc.) or synchronized UIDs across systems.

If SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC is enabled, you can use usermod --add-subuids -S to produce deterministic subuids.

WARNING: Because UID_MIN is used to calculate the ranges, any change of UID_MIN will change the ranges calculated. SUB_UID_COUNT is used to calculate the ranges, any change of SUB_UID_COUNT will change the ranges calculated. Users with identities less than UID_MIN are incompatible with SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC, but can still be set manually.

WARNING: Do not mix deterministic and linear (default) allocation on the same system or across systems sharing /etc/subuid via network storage (NFS, etc.). Mixing allocation methods will cause subordinate ID range conflicts and overlaps .

The default value for SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC is no.

Range Calculation Examples

With default configuration (UID_MIN=1000, SUB_UID_MIN=100000, SUB_UID_COUNT=65536):

UID Calculation Subordinate UID Range
1000 100000 + ((1000-1000) * 65536) 100000-165535
1001 100000 + ((1001-1000) * 65536) 165536-231071
1002 100000 + ((1002-1000) * 65536) 231072-296607
1100 100000 + ((1100-1000) * 65536) 6653600-6719135

Subordinate ID Space Planning

When planning subordinate ID allocation, calculate the maximum number of users the space can accommodate:

      capacity = (SUB_UID_MAX - SUB_UID_MIN) / SUB_UID_COUNT

With default values: (600100000 - 100000) / 65536 ≈ 9155 users.

For high-density environments with many users and smaller allocations:

        SUB_UID_COUNT  4096
        SUB_UID_MIN    100000
        SUB_UID_MAX    10000000

This gives: (10000000 - 100000) / 4096 ≈ 2417 users.

UNSAFE_SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC_WRAP (boolean)

WARNING: SECURITY RISK - MAY CAUSE RANGE OVERLAPS AND PRIVILEGE ESCALATION!

Only effective when SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC is set to yes.

When set to yes (WRAP MODE), allows the deterministic range calculation to wrap around using modulo arithmetic when a UID would overflow the configured subordinate ID space. The subordinate ID space is treated as a ring buffer.

WARNING: Range overlaps can lead to container escapes and privilege escalation. For example, with SUB_UID_MIN=100000, SUB_UID_MAX=200000, SUB_UID_COUNT=65536, User A (UID 1000) gets range [100000, 165535] and User B (UID 1001) wraps and overlaps with User A. User B's container can now access files from User A's containers.

Use only in development, testing, or tightly constrained lab environments.

When set to no (default), any arithmetic overflow or range exceeding SUB_UID_MAX is a hard error. This guarantees non-overlapping, monotonic allocation.

The default value for UNSAFE_SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC_WRAP is no.

SUB_UID_STORE_BY_UID (boolean)

If set to yes, subordinate user ID entries in /etc/subuid are stored using the numeric user ID rather than the username. The default value is no.

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.

TTYGROUP (string), TTYPERM (number)

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.

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)

文件模式创建掩码初始化为此值。如果没有指定,掩码初始化为 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)

如果定义了,这是删除账户时执行的命令。它应该移除所有属于此用户的的 at/cron/print 等作业(作为第一个参数传递)。

这个脚本的返回值并不被带到账户中去。

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.

YESCRYPT_COST_FACTOR (number)

When ENCRYPT_METHOD is set to YESCRYPT, this defines the cost factor used by the encryption algorithm by default (when the cost factor is not specified on the command line).

With a high cost factor, it is more difficult to brute force the password. But note also that more CPU resources will be needed to authenticate users.

The value must be inside the 1-11 range.

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.

交叉引用

如下交叉引用显示影子密码套件哪个程序使用哪个参数。

chfn

CHFN_RESTRICT

chgpasswd

ENCRYPT_METHOD MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS YESCRYPT_COST_FACTOR

chpasswd

SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS YESCRYPT_COST_FACTOR

gpasswd

ENCRYPT_METHOD MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS YESCRYPT_COST_FACTOR

groupadd

GID_MAX GID_MIN MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP SYS_GID_MAX SYS_GID_MIN

groupdel

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

newgrp / sg

SYSLOG_SG_ENAB

newusers

ENCRYPT_METHOD GID_MAX GID_MIN MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP HOME_MODE PASS_MAX_DAYS PASS_WARN_AGE SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS SUB_GID_COUNT SUB_GID_MAX SUB_GID_MIN SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC SUB_GID_STORE_BY_UID SUB_UID_COUNT SUB_UID_MAX SUB_UID_MIN SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC SUB_UID_STORE_BY_UID SYS_GID_MAX SYS_GID_MIN SYS_UID_MAX SYS_UID_MIN UID_MAX UID_MIN UMASK UNSAFE_SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC_WRAP UNSAFE_SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC_WRAP YESCRYPT_COST_FACTOR

pwck

PASS_MAX_DAYS PASS_WARN_AGE

pwconv

PASS_MAX_DAYS PASS_WARN_AGE

useradd

CREATE_HOME GID_MAX GID_MIN HOME_MODE LASTLOG_UID_MAX MAIL_DIR MAX_MEMBERS_PER_GROUP PASS_MAX_DAYS PASS_WARN_AGE SUB_GID_COUNT SUB_GID_MAX SUB_GID_MIN SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC SUB_GID_STORE_BY_UID SUB_UID_COUNT SUB_UID_MAX SUB_UID_MIN SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC SUB_UID_STORE_BY_UID SYS_GID_MAX SYS_GID_MIN SYS_UID_MAX SYS_UID_MIN UID_MAX UID_MIN UMASK UNSAFE_SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC_WRAP UNSAFE_SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC_WRAP

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 SUB_GID_COUNT SUB_GID_MAX SUB_GID_MIN SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC SUB_UID_COUNT SUB_UID_MAX SUB_UID_MIN SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC UNSAFE_SUB_GID_DETERMINISTIC_WRAP UNSAFE_SUB_UID_DETERMINISTIC_WRAP

缺陷

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.

参见

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

2026-07-30 shadow-utils 4.20.0