Why do I see the "root" user under the SVM > users and groups > UNIX > users in ONTAP 8.3

MohammadAli — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:30:14 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I have clustered Data ONTAP 8.3.0 with FC, iscsi, CIFS protocol configured in the SVM.

Why do I see the "root" user under the SVM > users and groups > UNIX > users. Kindly see the screenshot attached.

Unfortunately I can log into the SVM by this "root" user with the SVM lif and password "admin". Now security team is after me to change this password to something complex but the command doesn't work. See the below output:

cluster1::> security login password -vserver SVM-STORAGE01 -username root

Error: command failed: entry doesn't exist

cluster1::>

When I try to list down the available users from cli it doesn't show the "root" user.

cluster1::> security login show -vserver SVM-STORAGE01

Vserver: SVM-STORAGE01
                             Authentication                  Acct
User/Group Name Application Method         Role Name        Locked
---------------- ----------- -------------- ---------------- ------
vsadmin          ontapi      password       vsadmin          yes
vsadmin          ssh         password       vsadmin          yes
2 entries were displayed.

cluster1::>

But when I try to login to the that SVM using the the svm lif I can login using that “root” account with a password “admin”. And it gives only limited number of commands to execute. Kindly see the below cli output.

Using keyboard-interactive authentication.

Password:

SVM-STORAGE01::> security login password

Error: "security" is not a recognized command

SVM-STORAGE01::> ?

up Go up one directory

exit Quit the CLI session

history Show the history of commands for this CLI session

man Display the on-line manual pages

redo Execute a previous command

rows Show/Set the rows for this CLI session

top Go to the top-level directory

SVM-STORAGE01::>

Appriciate your quick and kind reply.

Re: Why do I see the "root" user under the SVM > users and groups > UNIX > users

kryan — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 14:38:56 GMT

You will need to upgrade ONTAP to 8.3.2P4+:

https://kb.netapp.com/support/s/article/cve-2015-8020-default-privileged-account-credentials-vulnerability-in-in-clustered-data-ontap

Re: Why do I see the "root" user under the SVM > users and groups > UNIX > users

Naveenpusuluru — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:53:33 GMT

Hi @MohammadAli

Can you please show me the below commands output.

vserver name-mapping show -vserver SVM-STORAGE01

Re: Why do I see the "root" user under the SVM > users and groups > UNIX > users

Naveenpusuluru — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 16:13:24 GMT

Hi @MohammadAli

Please use the below command to check the users

vserver services unix-user show

Please refer to the below link to check the full information.

https://library.netapp.com/ecmdocs/ECMP1366834/html/GUID-D315524D-F5F7-4DEA-BD6B-CE9943108984.html

topic Why do I see the "root" user under the SVM > users and groups > UNIX > users in ONTAP 8.3 in ONTAP Discussions

Why do I see the "root" user under the SVM > users and groups > UNIX > users in ONTAP 8.3

Re: Why do I see the "root" user under the SVM > users and groups > UNIX > users

Re: Why do I see the "root" user under the SVM > users and groups > UNIX > users

Re: Why do I see the "root" user under the SVM > users and groups > UNIX > users