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User Management Methods

db.auth()

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  • Definition
  • Syntax
  • Behavior
  • Example

Definition

db.auth()

Allows a user to authenticate to the database from within the shell.

Tip

Starting in version 4.2 of the mongo shell, you can use the passwordPrompt() method in conjunction with various user authentication/management methods/commands to prompt for the password instead of specifying the password directly in the method/command call. However, you can still specify the password directly as you would with earlier versions of the mongo shell.

Starting in MongoDB 4.4, if you use the db.auth(<username>, <password>) syntax and omit the password, the user is prompted to enter a password.

Syntax

The db.auth() has the following syntax forms:

db.auth(<username>, <password>)

Starting in MongoDB 4.4, you can either:

  • Omit the password to prompt the user to enter a password:

    db.auth( <username> )

  • Use passwordPrompt() to prompt the user to enter a password:

    db.auth( <username>, passwordPrompt() )

  • Specify a cleartext password.

    db.auth( <username>, <password> )

Starting in MongoDB 4.2, you can either:

  • Use passwordPrompt() to prompt the user to enter a password:

    db.auth( <username>, passwordPrompt() )

  • Specify a cleartext password:

    db.auth( <username>, <password> )

db.auth(<user document>)

db.auth( {
   user: <username>,
   pwd: passwordPrompt(),   // Or "<cleartext password>"
   mechanism: <authentication mechanism>,
   digestPassword: <boolean>
} )
Parameter
Type
Description
user
string
The name of the user with access privileges for this database.
pwd
string

The user's password. The value can be either:

  • the user's password in cleartext string, or

  • passwordPrompt() to prompt for the user's password.

Tip

Starting in version 4.2 of the mongo shell, you can use the passwordPrompt() method in conjunction with various user authentication/management methods/commands to prompt for the password instead of specifying the password directly in the method/command call. However, you can still specify the password directly as you would with earlier versions of the mongo shell.

When using the user document syntax, you cannot omit the pwd.

mechanism
string

Optional. The authentication mechanism to use.

For available mechanisms, see authentication mechanisms.

If unspecified, uses the hello command to determine the SASL mechanism or mechanisms for the specified user. See saslSupportedMechs.

digestPassword
boolean

Optional. Determines whether or not the supplied password should be pre-hashed before being used with the specified authentication mechanism.

  • For SCRAM-SHA-1, although you may specify true, setting this value to true does not improve security and may interfere with credentials using other mechanisms.

  • For all other methods, this value must be set to false (default value). Any other value will result in authentication failure since those methods do not understand MongoDB pre-hashing.

The default value is false.

Note

mongosh excludes all db.auth() operations from the saved history.

Returns
db.auth() returns 0 when authentication is not successful, and 1 when the operation is successful.

Behavior

Client Disconnection

Starting in MongoDB 4.2, if the client that issued db.auth() disconnects before the operation completes, MongoDB marks db.auth() for termination using killOp.

Example

Tip

Starting in version 4.2 of the mongo shell, you can use the passwordPrompt() method in conjunction with various user authentication/management methods/commands to prompt for the password instead of specifying the password directly in the method/command call. However, you can still specify the password directly as you would with earlier versions of the mongo shell.

Starting in MongoDB 4.4, if you use the db.auth(<username>, <password>) syntax and omit the password, the user is prompted to enter a password.

Authenticate after Connecting to the Shell

To authenticate after connecting mongosh, issue db.auth() in the user's authentication database:

use test
db.auth( "myTestDBUser", passwordPrompt() )

Starting in MongoDB 4.4, you can omit the password value entirely to prompt the user to enter their password:

use test
db.auth( "myTestDBUser" )

Starting in MongoDB 5.0, if your connection specifies the --apiStrict option, you may not use the db.auth() method to:

  • Authenticate again as the same user on the same database.

  • Authenticate as a different user when previously authenticated on the same database.

  • Authenticate with a new database when previously authenticated on a different database.

Authenticate when Connecting to the Shell

Alternatively, you can use mongosh's command-line options --username, --password, --authenticationDatabase, and --authenticationMechanism to specify authentication credentials when connecting mongosh:

mongosh --username "myTestDBUser" --password --authenticationDatabase test --authenticationMechanism SCRAM-SHA-256

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User Management Methods