System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (NIS+)

Locking a Password in NIS+

When operating in an NIS+ environment (see passwd Command and “NIS+ Environment”), an administrator (a group member) with modify rights to a user's entry in the passwd table can use the passwd command to lock a password. An account with a locked password cannot be used. When a password is locked, the user will receive a Login incorrect message after each login attempt.

Keep in mind that locked passwords have no effect on users who are already logged in. A locked password only prevents users from performing those operations that require giving a password such as login, rlogin, ftp, or telnet.

Note also that if a user with a locked password is already logged in, and that user uses the passwd command to change passwords, the lock is broken.

You can use this feature to:

To lock a password, use:


passwd -l username

Unlocking a Password in NIS+

To unlock a user's password, you simply change it. You can “change” it back to the exact same password that it was when it was locked. Or you can change it to something new.

For example, to unlock jody's password, you would enter:


station1% passwd jody