Recipe16.9.Setting a User s Account Options

Recipe 16.9. Setting a User's Account Options

Problem

You want to view or update the userAccountControl attribute for a user. This attribute controls various account options; for example, the user must change his password at next logon and whether the account is disabled.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open the ADUC snap-in.

2. In the left pane, right-click on the domain and select Find.

3. Select the appropriate domain beside In.

4. Beside Name, type the name of the user and click Find Now.

5. In the Search Results, double-click on the user.

6. Select the Account tab.

7. Many of the userAccountControl flags can be set under Account options.

8. Click OK after you're done.

Using a command-line interface

The dsmod user command has several options for setting various userAccountControl flags, which are listed in the Discussion section. Each switch accepts yes or no as a parameter to either enable or disable the setting.

Using VBScript

' This code enables or disables a bit value in the userAccountControl attr. ' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------ strUserDN = "<UserDN>"     ' e.g., cn=rallen,ou=Sales,dc=rallencorp,dc=com intBit = <BitValue>        ' e.g., 65536 boolEnable = <TrueOrFalse> ' e.g., trUE ' ------ END CONFIGURATION --------- strAttr = "userAccountControl" set objUser = GetObject("LDAP://" & strUserDN) intBitsOrig = objUser.Get(strAttr) intBitsCalc = CalcBit(intBitsOrig, intBit, boolEnable) if intBitsOrig <> intBitsCalc then    objUser.Put strAttr, intBitsCalc    objUser.SetInfo    WScript.Echo "Changed " & strAttr & " from " & _                 intBitsOrig & " to " & intBitsCalc else    WScript.Echo "Did not need to change " & strAttr & " (" & _                  intBitsOrig & ")" end if     Function CalcBit(intValue, intBit, boolEnable)    CalcBit = intValue    if boolEnable = TRUE then       CalcBit = intValue Or intBit    else       if intValue And intBit then          CalcBit = intValue Xor intBit       end if    end if End Function

Discussion

The userAccountControl attribute on user (and computer) objects could be considered the kitchen sink of miscellaneous and sometimes completely unrelated user account properties. If you have to do much creating and managing user objects, you'll need to become intimately familiar with this attribute.

The userAccountControl attribute is a bit flag, which means you have to take a couple extra steps to search against or modify it. For more on searching and modifying a bit flag attribute, see Recipes 4.10 and 4.13 in Active Directory Cookbook (O'Reilly).

The dsmod user command can be used to modify a subset of userAccountControl properties, as shown in Table 16-1. Table 16-2 lists userAccountControl properties as defined in the ADS_USER_FLAG_ENUM enumeration.

Table 16-1. dsmod user options for setting userAccountControl

dsmod user switch	Description
-mustchpwd	Sets whether the user must change password at next logon
-canchpwd	Sets whether the user can change his password
-disabled	Set account status to enabled or disabled
-reversiblepwd	Sets whether the user's password is stored using reversible encryption
-pwdneverexpires	Sets whether the user's password never expires

Table 16-2. ADS_USER_FLAG_ENUM values

Name	Value	Description
ADS_UF_SCRIPT	1	Logon script is executed
ADS_UF_ACCOUNTDISABLE	2	Account is disabled
ADS_UF_HOMEDIR_REQUIRED	8	Home Directory is required
ADS_UF_LOCKOUT	16	Account is locked out
ADS_UF_PASSWD_NOTREQD	32	A password is not required
ADS_UF_PASSWD_CANT_CHANGE	64	Read-only flag that indicates if the user cannot change his password
ADS_UF_ENCRYPTED_TEXT_PASSWORD_ALLOWED	128	Store password using reversible encryption
ADS_UF_TEMP_DUPLICATE_ACCOUNT	256	Account provides access to the domain, but not to any other domain that trusts the domain
ADS_UF_NORMAL_ACCOUNT	512	Enabled user account
ADS_UF_INTERDOMAIN_TRUST_ACCOUNT	2048	A permit to trust account for a system domain that trusts other domains
ADS_UF_WORKSTATION_TRUST_ACCOUNT	4096	Enabled computer account
ADS_UF_SERVER_TRUST_ACCOUNT	8192	Computer account for backup domain controller
ADS_UF_DONT_EXPIRE_PASSWD	65536	Password will not expire
ADS_UF_MNS_LOGON_ACCOUNT	131072	MNS logon account
ADS_UF_SMARTCARD_REQUIRED	262144	Smart card is required for logon
ADS_UF_TRUSTED_FOR_DELEGATION	524288	Allow Kerberos delegation
ADS_UF_NOT_DELEGATED	1048576	Do not allow Kerberos delegation even if ADS_UF_TRUSTED_FOR_DELETATION is enabled
ADS_UF_USE_DES_KEY_ONLY	2097152	Requires DES encryption for keys
ADS_UF_DONT_REQUIRE_PREAUTH	4194304	Account does not require Kerberos preauthentication for logon
ADS_UF_PASSWORD_EXPIRED	8388608	Read-only flag indicating account's password has expired. Used only with the WinNT provider.
ADS_UF_TRUSTED_TO_AUTHENTICATE_FOR_DELEGATION	16777216	Account is enabled for delegation

See Also

MSDN: ADS_USER_FLAG_ENUM