You need to use the usermod command to lock and disable user account. The -L option lock user’s password by putting a ! in from of the the encrypted password. To disable user account set expire date to one or 1970-01-01.
Syntax
The syntax is:
usermod -L -e 1 {user}
usermod -L -e 1970-01-01 {user}
Example
In this example, local disable a user account for raj user:
# usermod -L -e 1 raj
When raj try to login he will greeted with the following message on screen
Your account has expired; please contact your system administrator
However, ssh client will not show any message:
$ ssh raj@server1.cyberciti.biz
Sample outputs:
raj@server1.cyberciti.biz's password: Permission denied, please try again. raj@server1.cyberciti.biz's password: Permission denied, please try again. raj@server1.cyberciti.biz's password: Permission denied (publickey,password).
You will see the following log entry in /var/log/secure or /var/log/auth.log file:
Dec 2 02:01:02 wks01 sshd[32285]: Failed password for raj from 192.168.1.100 port 34171 ssh2 Dec 2 02:01:07 wks01 sshd[32285]: Failed password for raj from 192.168.1.100 port 34171 ssh2 Dec 2 02:01:10 wks01 sshd[32285]: Failed password for raj from 192.168.1.100 port 34171 ssh2
Use chage command to see current status of the user account:
# chage -l raj
Sample outputs:
Last password change : Dec 01, 2012 Password expires : never Password inactive : never Account expires : Jan 02, 1970 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
See also
- Help: Old Employees Accessing The Linux Server
- man pages chage, passwd, usermod, and useradd
3 comment
Hi,
thank you
hi,
when I type into root # usermod -L -e 1 raj this command and press f2 to log into the user Smith it still allows me to log into his account. I’m trying to disable the user account.
please help!
usermod -L -e 1 raj is the example you should replace raj with your users account name exactly as it appears since it is case sensitive.
EX.
username is Smith
command should be : usermod -L -e 1 Smith