Linux turn OFF password expiration / aging

by nixCraft on May 22, 2007 · 17 comments· Last updated June 1, 2007

/etc/shadow stores actual password in encrypted format for user’s account with additional properties related to user password.

The password expiration information for a user is contained in the last 6 fields. Password expiration for a select user can be disabled by editing the /etc/shadow file

However I recommend using chage command. The chage command changes the number of days between password changes and the date of the last password change. This information is used by the system to determine when a user must change his/her password.

To list current aging type chage command as follows:
# chage -l vivek
Output:

Last password change                                    : May 22, 2007
Password expires                                        : never
Password inactive                                       : never
Account expires                                         : never
Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7

To disable password aging / expiration for user foo, type command as follows and set:
Minimum Password Age to 0
Maximum Password Age to 99999
Password Inactive to -1
Account Expiration Date to -1
Interactive mode command:
# chage username
OR
# chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1 username

Updated for accuracy.

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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }

1 meme June 1, 2007 at 1:23 am

thanks a lot!! this really helped me!

2 Chris Ashdown May 7, 2010 at 8:51 am: Great advice, thanks !!
Reply

3 Ben July 11, 2007 at 10:41 pm

The simplest way to change the command-line version so that it actually works is as follows:
# chage -I \-1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E \-1 username

Most shells (certainly bash) require escaping ‘-’ characters.

4 Eason April 17, 2008 at 3:49 am

thousand thanks

5 question April 25, 2008 at 8:04 am

Any solution to set ACCOUNT EXPIRE after x days without login to the system instead of set a fix date?

6 James July 25, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Is there a way to do this to all user accounts at once? I’ve tried using “*”, but had no luck with that. Thanks.

7 vivek July 25, 2008 at 3:20 pm

James,

Try something as follows to list permission for all user (backup your /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow before you run following commands) :
awk -F':' '{ if ( $3 >= 1000 ) print $0 }' /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1 | xargs -I {} chage -l {}

Replace chage -l with ‘chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1′

awk -F':' '{ if ( $3 >= 1000 ) print $0 }' /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1 | xargs -I {} chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1 {}

8 Walter September 15, 2008 at 4:30 pm

Just to eliminate the unnecessary “cut”, make it:
awk -F':' '{ if ( $3 >= 1000 ) print $1 }' /etc/passwd | xargs -I {} chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1 {}

9 praveen yenegalla April 26, 2011 at 4:55 am: Thanks alot.
Reply

10 Sureshkumar January 9, 2009 at 11:16 am

Hi ,

thanx …

11 Laxman March 25, 2009 at 6:08 am

awk -F’:’ ‘{ if ( $3 >= 1000 ) print $1 }’ /etc/passwd | xargs -I {} chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1 {}

is helped me

12 Shankar April 7, 2009 at 2:00 pm

I get this error while executing the command,

[root@lnxtestsrv1 ~]# awk -F ':' '{ if ( $3 >= 1000 ) print $1 }' /etc/passwd | xargs -I {} chage -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 -E -1 {}
xargs: invalid option -- I
Usage: xargs [-0prtx] [-E eof-str] [-e[eof-str]] [-I replace-str]
       [-i[replace-str]] [-L max-lines] [-l[max-lines]] [-n max-args]
       [-s max-chars] [-P max-procs] [--null] [--eof[=eof-str]]
       [--replace[=replace-str]] [--max-lines[=max-lines]] [--interactive]
       [--max-chars=max-chars] [--verbose] [--exit] [--max-procs=max-procs]
       [--max-args=max-args] [--no-run-if-empty] [--version] [--help]
       [command [initial-arguments]]
Report bugs to .

13 Vivek Gite April 7, 2009 at 4:28 pm