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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXIT STATUS | SEE ALSO | NOTES | COLOPHON |
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SYSTEMD-ASK-PASSWORD(1) systemd-ask-password SYSTEMD-ASK-PASSWORD(1)
systemd-ask-password - Query the user for a system password
systemd-ask-password [OPTIONS...] [MESSAGE]
systemd-ask-password may be used to query a system password or
passphrase from the user, using a question message specified on
the command line. When run from a TTY it will query a password on
the TTY and print it to standard output. When run with no TTY or
with --no-tty it will use the system-wide query mechanism, which
allows active users to respond via several agents, listed below.
The purpose of this tool is to query system-wide passwords — that
is passwords not attached to a specific user account. Examples
include: unlocking encrypted hard disks when they are plugged in
or at boot, entering an SSL certificate passphrase for web and
VPN servers.
Existing agents are:
• A boot-time password agent asking the user for passwords
using plymouth(8),
• A boot-time password agent querying the user directly on the
console — systemd-ask-password-console.service(8),
• An agent requesting password input via a wall(1) message —
systemd-ask-password-wall.service(8),
• A TTY agent that is temporarily spawned during systemctl(1)
invocations,
• A command line agent which can be started temporarily to
process queued password requests —
systemd-tty-ask-password-agent --query.
Answering system-wide password queries is a privileged operation,
hence all the agents listed above (except for the last one), run
as privileged system services. The last one also needs elevated
privileges, so should be run through sudo(8) or similar.
Additional password agents may be implemented according to the
systemd Password Agent Specification[1].
If a password is queried on a TTY, the user may press TAB to hide
the asterisks normally shown for each character typed. Pressing
Backspace as first key achieves the same effect.
The following options are understood:
--icon=
Specify an icon name alongside the password query, which may
be used in all agents supporting graphical display. The icon
name should follow the XDG Icon Naming Specification[2].
--id=
Specify an identifier for this password query. This
identifier is freely choosable and allows recognition of
queries by involved agents. It should include the subsystem
doing the query and the specific object the query is done
for. Example: "--id=cryptsetup:/dev/sda5".
--keyname=
Configure a kernel keyring key name to use as cache for the
password. If set, then the tool will try to push any
collected passwords into the kernel keyring of the root user,
as a key of the specified name. If combined with
--accept-cached, it will also try to retrieve such cached
passwords from the key in the kernel keyring instead of
querying the user right away. By using this option, the
kernel keyring may be used as effective cache to avoid
repeatedly asking users for passwords, if there are multiple
objects that may be unlocked with the same password. The
cached key will have a timeout of 2.5min set, after which it
will be purged from the kernel keyring. Note that it is
possible to cache multiple passwords under the same keyname,
in which case they will be stored as NUL-separated list of
passwords. Use keyctl(1) to access the cached key via the
kernel keyring directly. Example: "--keyname=cryptsetup"
--timeout=
Specify the query timeout in seconds. Defaults to 90s. A
timeout of 0 waits indefinitely.
--echo
Echo the user input instead of masking it. This is useful
when using systemd-ask-password to query for usernames.
--no-tty
Never ask for password on current TTY even if one is
available. Always use agent system.
--accept-cached
If passed, accept cached passwords, i.e. passwords previously
entered.
--multiple
When used in conjunction with --accept-cached accept multiple
passwords. This will output one password per line.
--no-output
Do not print passwords to standard output. This is useful if
you want to store a password in kernel keyring with --keyname
but do not want it to show up on screen or in logs.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
systemd(1), systemd-ask-password-console.service(8),
systemd-tty-ask-password-agent(1), keyctl(1), plymouth(8),
wall(1)
1. systemd Password Agent Specification
https://systemd.io/PASSWORD_AGENTS/
2. XDG Icon Naming Specification
http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html
This page is part of the systemd (systemd system and service
manager) project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd⟩. If you have
a bug report for this manual page, see
⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/#bugreports⟩.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/systemd/systemd.git⟩ on 2020-12-18. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2020-12-18.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
systemd 247 SYSTEMD-ASK-PASSWORD(1)
Pages that refer to this page: systemd-tty-ask-password-agent(1), systemd.directives(7), systemd.index(7)
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