mosquitto_passwd - Man Page

manage password files for mosquitto

Examples (TL;DR)

Add a new user to a password file (will prompt to enter the password): mosquitto_passwd path/to/password_file username
Create the password file if it doesn't already exist: mosquitto_passwd -c path/to/password_file username
Delete the specified username instead: mosquitto_passwd -D path/to/password_file username
Upgrade an old plain-text password file to a hashed password file: mosquitto_passwd -U path/to/password_file

mosquitto_passwd [-H hash] [-c | -D] passwordfile username

mosquitto_passwd [-H hash] -b passwordfile username password

mosquitto_passwd -U passwordfile

mosquitto_passwd is a tool for managing password files for the mosquitto MQTT broker.

Usernames must not contain ":". Passwords are stored in a similar format to crypt(3).

-b: Run in batch mode. This allows the password to be provided at the command line which can be convenient but should be used with care because the password will be visible on the command line and in command history.
-c: Create a new password file. If the file already exists, it will be overwritten. If the filename is specified as a dash - then the output will be to stdout. This only really makes sense with -b.
-D: Delete the specified user from the password file.
-H: Choose the hash to use. Can be one of argon2id, sha512-pbkdf2, or sha512. Defaults to argon2id. The sha512 option is provided for creating password files for use with Mosquitto 1.6 and earlier.
-U: This option can be used to upgrade/convert a password file with plain text passwords into one using hashed passwords. It will modify the specified file. It does not detect whether passwords are already hashed, so using it on a password file that already contains hashed passwords will generate new hashes based on the old hashes and render the password file unusable.
passwordfile: The password file to modify.
username: The username to add/update/delete.
password: The password to use when in batch mode.

mosquitto_passwd returns zero on success or non-zero on error.

Add a user to a new password file:

Add a user to an existing password file:

Add a user to an existing password file, passing the password on the command line:

Update the password for a user in an existing password file:

Add a user to an existing password file using the sha512 hash for Mosquitto 1.6 compatibility:

Delete a user from a password file

MOSQUITTO_UNSAFE_ALLOW_SYMLINKS: By default, sensitive file with a path including a symbolic link will be refused to be loaded. Set this environment variable to any value to allow load files through symbolic links. Note that making use of this variable could expose you to symlink attacks and so it should only be used in cases where you are absolutely sure this is not a risk.