createUser

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Definition

Syntax
Behavior
Required Access
Example

Definition

createUser: Creates a new user on the database where you run the command. The createUser command returns a duplicate user error if the user exists.
Tip
In mongosh, this command can also be run through the db.createUser() helper method.
Helper methods are convenient for mongosh users, but they may not return the same level of information as database commands. In cases where the convenience is not needed or the additional return fields are required, use the database command.

Syntax

The command has the following syntax:

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.

db.runCommand(
   {
     createUser: "<name>",
     pwd: passwordPrompt(),      // Or  "<cleartext password>"
     customData: { <any information> },
     roles: [
       { role: "<role>", db: "<database>" } | "<role>",
       ...
     ],
     writeConcern: { <write concern> },
     authenticationRestrictions: [
        { clientSource: [ "<IP|CIDR range>", ... ], serverAddress: [ "<IP|CIDR range>", ... ] },
        ...
     ],
     mechanisms: [ "<scram-mechanism>", ... ],  //Available starting in MongoDB 4.0
     digestPassword: <boolean>,
     comment: <any>
   }
)

Command Fields

createUser has the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
`createUser`	string	The name of the new user.
`pwd`	string	The user's password. The `pwd` field is not required if you run `createUser` on the `$external` database to create users who have credentials stored externally to MongoDB. 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.
`customData`	document	Optional. Any arbitrary information. This field can be used to store any data an admin wishes to associate with this particular user. For example, this could be the user's full name or employee id.
`roles`	array	The roles granted to the user. Can specify an empty array `[]` to create users without roles.
`digestPassword`	boolean	Optional. Indicates whether the server or the client digests the password. If true, the server receives undigested password from the client and digests the password. If false, the client digests the password and passes the digested password to the server. Not compatible with `SCRAM-SHA-256` Changed in version 4.0: The default value is `true`. In earlier versions, the default value is `false`.
`writeConcern`	document	Optional. The level of write concern for the operation. See Write Concern Specification.
`authenticationRestrictions`	array	Optional. The authentication restrictions the server enforces on the created user. Specifies a list of IP addresses and CIDR ranges from which the user is allowed to connect to the server or from which the server can accept users.
`mechanisms`	array	Optional. Specify the specific SCRAM mechanism or mechanisms for creating SCRAM user credentials. If `authenticationMechanisms` is specified, you can only specify a subset of the `authenticationMechanisms`. Valid values are: `"SCRAM-SHA-1"` Uses the `SHA-1` hashing function. `"SCRAM-SHA-256"` Uses the `SHA-256` hashing function. Requires featureCompatibilityVersion set to `4.0`. Requires digestPassword to be `true`. The default for featureCompatibilityVersion is `4.0` is both `SCRAM-SHA-1` and `SCRAM-SHA-256`. The default for featureCompatibilityVersion is `3.6` is `SCRAM-SHA-1`. New in version 4.0.
`digestPassword`	boolean	Optional. Indicates whether the server or the client digests the password. If true, the server receives undigested password from the client and digests the password. If false, the client digests the password and passes the digested password to the server. Not compatible with `SCRAM-SHA-256` Changed in version 4.0: The default value is `true`. In earlier versions, the default value is `false`.
`comment`	any	Optional. A user-provided comment to attach to this command. Once set, this comment appears alongside records of this command in the following locations: mongod log messages, in the `attr.command.cursor.comment` field. Database profiler output, in the `command.comment` field. `currentOp` output, in the `command.comment` field. A comment can be any valid BSON type (string, integer, object, array, etc). New in version 4.4.

Roles

In the roles field, you can specify both built-in roles and user-defined roles.

To specify a role that exists in the same database where createUser runs, you can either specify the role with the name of the role:

"readWrite"

Or you can specify the role with a document, as in:

{ role: "<role>", db: "<database>" }

To specify a role that exists in a different database, specify the role with a document.

Authentication Restrictions

The authenticationRestrictions document can contain only the following fields. The server throws an error if the authenticationRestrictions document contains an unrecognized field:

Field Name	Value	Description
`clientSource`	Array of IP addresses and/or CIDR ranges	If present, when authenticating a user, the server verifies that the client's IP address is either in the given list or belongs to a CIDR range in the list. If the client's IP address is not present, the server does not authenticate the user.
`serverAddress`	Array of IP addresses and/or CIDR ranges	A list of IP addresses or CIDR ranges to which the client can connect. If present, the server will verify that the client's connection was accepted via an IP address in the given list. If the connection was accepted via an unrecognized IP address, the server does not authenticate the user.

Important

If a user inherits multiple roles with incompatible authentication restrictions, that user becomes unusable.

For example, if a user inherits one role in which the clientSource field is ["198.51.100.0"] and another role in which the clientSource field is ["203.0.113.0"] the server is unable to authenticate the user.

For more information on authentication in MongoDB, see Authentication.

Behavior

User ID

Starting in version 4.0.9, MongoDB automatically assigns a unique userId to the user upon creation.

Encryption

Warning

By default, createUser sends all specified data to the MongoDB instance in cleartext, even if using passwordPrompt(). Use TLS transport encryption to protect communications between clients and the server, including the password sent by createUser. For instructions on enabling TLS transport encryption, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

MongoDB does not store the password in cleartext. The password is only vulnerable in transit between the client and the server, and only if TLS transport encryption is not enabled.

External Credentials

Users created on the $external database should have credentials stored externally to MongoDB, as, for example, with MongoDB Enterprise installations that use Kerberos.

To use Client Sessions and Causal Consistency Guarantees with $external authentication users (Kerberos, LDAP, or x.509 users), usernames cannot be greater than 10k bytes.

`local` Database

You cannot create users on the local database.

Username Limits

Usernames must consist of at least one character and cannot be larger than 7MB.

Required Access

To create a new user in a database, you must have the createUser action on that database resource.
To grant roles to a user, you must have the grantRole action on the role's database.

The userAdmin and userAdminAnyDatabase built-in roles provide createUser and grantRole actions on their respective resources.

Example

The following createUser command creates a user accountAdmin01 on the products database. The command gives accountAdmin01 the clusterAdmin and readAnyDatabase roles on the admin database and the readWrite role on the products database:

Tip

 db.getSiblingDB("products").runCommand( {
       createUser: "accountAdmin01",
       pwd: passwordPrompt(),
       customData: { employeeId: 12345 },
       roles: [
                { role: "clusterAdmin", db: "admin" },
                { role: "readAnyDatabase", db: "admin" },
                "readWrite"
              ],
       writeConcern: { w: "majority" , wtimeout: 5000 }
} )

Back

User Management Commands

dropAllUsersFromDatabase

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