How Disable Normal User Logins in Linux
How Disable Normal User Logins in Linux
As a system administrator, you will inevitably perform scheduled system maintenances at some point or another. A few times, your system may also encounter some problem(s) and you will be forced to put it down to fix the problem(s). What ever the situations is, it is a good idea to prevent non-root(normal) users from connecting to the system.
In this article, we will describe how to block non-root users logins using /etc/nologin file as well as a nologinshell in Linux. We will look at how to set a message that explains to users what is actually happening.
How to Block User Logins Using /etc/nologin File
The primary function of /etc/nologin file is to display a message (stored in the file) to users attempting to log on to a system during the process of shutdown.
Once the message has been displayed to the user, the login procedure terminates, preventing the user from logging onto the system.
This can be used to block user login by manually creating the file as follows.
Add the message below to the file, which will be shown to users attempting to log on to the system.
Now you can test if it all works; as you can see from the screen shot below, a normal user
tecmint
is not able to login.How to Block User Logins Using nologin Shell
This method works a little differently: it only blocks a user from accessing a shell. But he or she can log on to the system via programs such as ftp that do not necessarily require a shell for the user to connect to a system.
Additionally, it can allow you to block shell access to specific users in special scenarios.
On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
Simply use chsh (change shell) command to change the users shell in /etc/passwd file from something like
/bin/bash
or /bin/sh
to /sbin/nologin
meaning refuse a login.On Debian/Ubuntu
Here, you have to use /bin/false file. The command below changes the user tecmint’s shell to
/bin/false
meaning do nothing (after user provides login credentials):
You may also like to read these following related articles.
- How to Enable and Disable Root Login in Ubuntu
- Resetting/Recovering Forgotten Root User Account Password in RHEL/CentOS 7
- How to Restrict SFTP Users to Home Directories Using chroot Jail
- How to Set and Unset Local, User and System Wide Environment Variables in Linux
That’s all for now! If you have any questions or additional ideas to share concerning this topic, make use of the comment form below.
Article source : https://www.tecmint.com/block-or-disable-normal-user-logins-in-linux/
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