KADMIN(8)

✨ NAME ✨

kadmin — Kerberos administration utility. This is the kadmin(8) page from the System Manager's Manual, and bestie, it's literally the tool for making modifications to the Kerberos database. Iconic. 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

kadmin [-p string | --principal=string] [-K string | --keytab=string]
       [-c file | --config-file=file] [-k file | --key-file=file]
       [-r realm | --realm=realm] [-a host | --admin-server=host]
       [-s port number | --server-port=port number] [-l | --local]
       [-h | --help] [-v | --version] [command]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Okay so, kadmin is the program for making modifications to the Kerberos database, either remotely via the kadmind(8) daemon, or locally (with the -l option). That's the whole vibe.

✨ Supported options ✨

• -p string, --principal=string — principal to authenticate as.
• -K string, --keytab=string — keytab for authentication principal.
• -c file, --config-file=file — location of config file.
• -k file, --key-file=file — location of master key file.
• -r realm, --realm=realm — realm to use.
• -a host, --admin-server=host — server to contact.
• -s port number, --server-port=port number — port to use.
• -l, --local — local admin mode.
• -h, --help — help flag (it’s in the synopsis, bestie).
• -v, --version — version flag (also in the synopsis).

If no command is given on the command line, kadmin will prompt for commands to process. Some of the commands that take one or more principals as argument (delete, ext_keytab, get, modify, and passwd) will accept a glob style wildcard, and perform the operation on all matching principals. No cap.

🎀 Commands include 🎀

• add — adds a new principal to the database. Syntax: add [-r | --random-key] [--random-password] [-p string | --password=string] [--key=string] [--max-ticket-life=lifetime] [--max-renewable-life=lifetime] [--attributes=attributes] [--expiration-time=time] [--pw-expiration-time=time] principal.... The options not passed on the command line will be prompted for.
• add_enctype — adds a new encryption type to the principal, only random keys are supported. Syntax: add_enctype [-r | --random-key] principal enctypes....
• delete — removes a principal. Syntax: delete principal....
• del_enctype — removes some enctypes from a principal; this can be useful if the service belonging to the principal is known to not handle certain enctypes. Syntax: del_enctype principal enctypes....
• ext_keytab — creates a keytab with the keys of the specified principals. Syntax: ext_keytab [-k string | --keytab=string] principal....
• get — lists the matching principals. Syntax: get [-l | --long] [-s | --short] [-t | --terse] [-o string | --column-info=string] principal.... Short prints the result as a table, while long format produces a more verbose output. Which columns to print can be selected with the -o option. The argument is a comma separated list of column names optionally appended with an equal sign (=) and a column header. Which columns are printed by default differ slightly between short and long output. The default terse output format is similar to -s -o principal=, just printing the names of matched principals. Possible column names include: principal, princ_expire_time, pw_expiration, last_pwd_change, max_life, max_rlife, mod_time, mod_name, attributes, kvno, mkvno, last_success, last_failed, fail_auth_count, policy, and keytypes.
• modify — modifies certain attributes of a principal. Syntax: modify [-a attributes | --attributes=attributes] [--max-ticket-life=lifetime] [--max-renewable-life=lifetime] [--expiration-time=time] [--pw-expiration-time=time] [--kvno=number] principal.... If run without command line options, you will be prompted. With command line options, it will only change the ones specified. Possible attributes are: new-princ, support-desmd5, pwchange-service, disallow-svr, requires-pw-change, requires-hw-auth, requires-pre-auth, disallow-all-tix, disallow-dup-skey, disallow-proxiable, disallow-renewable, disallow-tgt-based, disallow-forwardable, disallow-postdated. Attributes may be negated with a -, e.g., kadmin -l modify -a -disallow-proxiable user.
• passwd — changes the password of an existing principal. Syntax: passwd [-r | --random-key] [--random-password] [-p string | --password=string] [--key=string] principal....
• password-quality — run the password quality check function locally. Syntax: password-quality principal password. You can run this on the host that is configured to run the kadmind process to verify that your configuration file is correct. The verification is done locally, if kadmin is run in remote mode, no rpc call is done to the server.
• privileges — lists the operations you are allowed to perform. Syntax: privileges. These include add, add_enctype, change-password, delete, del_enctype, get, list, and modify.
• rename — renames a principal. Syntax: rename from to. This is normally transparent, but since keys are salted with the principal name, they will have a non-standard salt, and clients which are unable to cope with this will fail. Kerberos 4 suffers from this.
• check — check database for strange configurations on important principals. Syntax: check [realm]. If no realm is given, the default realm is used.

🌈 Local-mode commands 🌈

When running in local mode, the following commands can also be used:

• dump — writes the database in “human readable” form to the specified file, or standard out. Syntax: dump [-d | --decrypt] [dump-file]. If the database is encrypted, the dump will also have encrypted keys, unless --decrypt is used.
• init — initializes the Kerberos database with entries for a new realm. Syntax: init [--realm-max-ticket-life=string] [--realm-max-renewable-life=string] realm. It's possible to have more than one realm served by one server.
• load — reads a previously dumped database, and re-creates that database from scratch. Syntax: load file.
• merge — similar to load but just modifies the database with the entries in the dump file. Syntax: merge file.
• stash — writes the Kerberos master key to a file used by the KDC. Syntax: stash [-e enctype | --enctype=enctype] [-k keyfile | --key-file=keyfile] [--convert-file] [--master-key-fd=fd].

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

kadmind(8), kdc(8) — go read those too, bestie.

HEIMDAL, Feb 22, 2007 — that’s the source/version and date, and this page is a wrap. Mwah 💋 periodt.