Notes

User Management

1 min read

User management is essential in Linux administration for creating, adding and editing users. Another possibility is to execute commands as a different user. For example, User vs Root

workstation@htb[/htb]$ cat /etc/shadow
cat: /etc/shadow: Permission denied
 
workstation@htb[/htb]$ sudo cat /etc/shadow
root:<SNIP>:18395:0:99999:7:::
daemon:*:17737:0:99999:7:::
<SNIP>

Here are the main commands for user management:

  • sudo execute commands as a different user
  • useradd creates a new user or update default new user information
  • userdel deletes a user account and related files
  • usermod modifies a user account
  • addgroup adds a group to the system
  • delgroup deletes a group from the system
  • passwd changes the user password
  • su su utility requests appropriate user credentials via PAM and switches to that user ID (for default is superuser i.e. root).

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