authconfig

Configure system authentication on Red Hat-based distributions

TLDR

Show current configuration

$ authconfig --test

Change password algorithm

$ authconfig --update --passalgo=sha512

Enable LDAP authentication

$ authconfig --update --enableldapauth

Disable LDAP authentication

$ authconfig --update --disableldapauth

Enable NIS

$ authconfig --update --enablenis

Enable Kerberos

$ authconfig --update --enablekrb5

Enable Winbind (Active Directory)

$ authconfig --update --enablewinbindauth

Enable SSSD for identity and authentication

$ authconfig --update --enablesssd --enablesssdauth

Create home directories on first login

$ authconfig --update --enablemkhomedir

Save a named backup of the configuration files

$ authconfig --savebackup=[name]

authconfig configures system authentication resources on Red Hat-based Linux distributions. It manages PAM stack configuration, nsswitch.conf settings, and related authentication files to enable or disable mechanisms including LDAP, NIS, Kerberos, Winbind, and local authentication.The tool modifies system files to integrate centralized identity providers with the local authentication stack. Use --test to inspect the current configuration before making changes with --update.

PARAMETERS

--test

Display the current configuration without making changes

--update

Apply configuration changes

--passalgo algorithm

Set password hashing algorithm (sha256, sha512)

--probe

Probe the network via DNS for defaults and print them, without changing anything

--enableldap

Use LDAP for user information lookups (modifies nsswitch.conf)

--enableldapauth

Use LDAP for authentication (modifies the PAM stack)

--disableldapauth

Disable LDAP authentication

--enablesssd

Use SSSD for user information lookups

--enablesssdauth

Use SSSD for authentication

--enablenis

Enable Network Information Service

--enablekrb5

Enable Kerberos 5 authentication

--enablewinbindauth

Enable Winbind (Active Directory) authentication

--enablelocauthorize

Enable local authorization

--enablemkhomedir

Create a user home directory automatically on first login

--enableshadow

Enable shadow password file

--savebackup name

Save a named backup of the files authconfig modifies

--restorebackup name

Restore a previously saved named backup

--restorelastbackup

Restore the automatic backup taken before the last change

CONFIGURATION

/etc/sysconfig/authconfig

Stores the current authconfig settings as key-value pairs.

/etc/pam.d/

PAM configuration directory modified by authconfig to enable authentication modules.

/etc/nsswitch.conf

Name service switch configuration, updated to reflect identity source changes.

CAVEATS

This tool is specific to Red Hat-based distributions (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora). It was deprecated in favor of authselect starting with RHEL 8 and Fedora 28, and removed entirely from Fedora 35 onward. On those systems, use authselect instead. Changes require root privileges, and --update must be run to persist them.

HISTORY

authconfig was the standard authentication configuration tool for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and related distributions for many years. It was superseded by authselect, which uses predefined profiles to manage the PAM stack and nsswitch.conf. See the authselect-migration(7) man page for equivalent commands.