How to Disable a User in Ubuntu Linux

This brief guide shows how to disable a user in Ubuntu Linux. If you are a beginner or a new user and want to disable a user account in Linux then this short tutorial is useful and handy for you.

If you disable or deactivate a user account from Linux system that means the user is no longer able to login and access the system and other privileged rights. This way, you can disable a user account temporarily and when need, you can re-enable the account again easily.

In this tutorial, we are going to disable a user account in Linux with some different methods.

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How to Disable a User in Ubuntu Linux

When you are ready, follow the steps below to deactivate a user account in Linux:

Method 1 : Disable a User Account by Editing /etc/shadow

You can use the usermod command to disable a user account in Ubuntu Linux. To do that, simply run the usermod command with -L (Lock) option as shown below:

# usermod -L username

The above command add a exclamation mark at the beginning of the encrypted user’s password that is stored inside the /etc/shadow directory. To check it, run the command below:

# cat /etc/shadow | grep username

output

username:!$0$5f6K/f1YP4FGJ2bh$T2r [...]

To re-enable the user when you need, run the usermod command  with -U (Unlock) option as shown below:

# usermod -U username

The command above remove the exclamation mark from the beginning of the encrypted user’s password and unlock the user.

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Method 2 : Disable User Account With nologin Shells

You can also disable a user by changing their default login shell to /sbin/nologin.

To disable a user account using this method, run the usermod command with the -s option as shown below:

# usermod username -s /sbin/nologin

The command above will change the shell to /sbin/nologin. To check it, run the command below:

# cat /etc/passwd | grep testuser

Output

username:x:1001:1004::/home/username:/sbin/nologin

After that, if user will try to login in Linux, he will get a message similar like below:

# su username

This account is currently not available.

To re-enable the user when you need, run the command below:

# usermod username -s /bin/bash

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That’s all

If you find any error and issue in above steps , please use comment box below to report.

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