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db.createUser()

Definition

db.createUser(user, writeConcern)

Creates a new user for the database on which the method is run. db.createUser() returns a duplicate user error if the user already exists on the database.

The db.createUser() method has the following syntax:

Field Type Description
user document The document with authentication and access information about the user to create.
writeConcern document Optional. The level of write concern for the creation operation. The writeConcern document takes the same fields as the getLastError command.

The user document defines the user and has the following form:

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.

{
  user: "<name>",
  pwd: passwordPrompt(),      // Or  "<cleartext password>"
  customData: { <any information> },
  roles: [
    { role: "<role>", db: "<database>" } | "<role>",
    ...
  ],
  authenticationRestrictions: [
     {
       clientSource: ["<IP>" | "<CIDR range>", ...],
       serverAddress: ["<IP>" | "<CIDR range>", ...]
     },
     ...
  ],
  mechanisms: [ "<SCRAM-SHA-1|SCRAM-SHA-256>", ... ],
  passwordDigestor: "<server|client>"
}

The user document has the following fields:

Field Type Description
user string The name of the new user.
pwd string

The user’s password. The pwd field is not required if you run db.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.
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.

New in version 3.6.

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 passwordDigestor to be server.

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.

passwordDigestor string

Optional. Indicates whether the server or the client digests the password.

Available values are:

  • "server" (Default)
    The server receives undigested password from the client and digests the password.
  • "client" (Not compatible with SCRAM-SHA-256)
    The client digests the password and passes the digested password to the server.

Changed in version 4.0: The default value is "server". In earlier versions, the default value is "client".

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 db.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

New in version 3.6.

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.

The db.createUser() method wraps the createUser command.

Behavior

User Id

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

Replica set

If run on a replica set, db.createUser() is executed using majority write concern by default.

Encryption

Warning

By default, db.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 db.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.

Changed in version 3.6.3: To use sessions with $external authentication users (i.e. Kerberos, LDAP, x.509 users), the usernames cannot be greater than 10k bytes.

local Database

You cannot create users on the local database.

Required Access

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

Examples

The following db.createUser() operation creates the accountAdmin01 user on the products database.

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.

use products
db.createUser( { user: "accountAdmin01",
                 pwd: passwordPrompt(),  // Or  "<cleartext password>"
                 customData: { employeeId: 12345 },
                 roles: [ { role: "clusterAdmin", db: "admin" },
                          { role: "readAnyDatabase", db: "admin" },
                          "readWrite"] },
               { w: "majority" , wtimeout: 5000 } )

The operation gives accountAdmin01 the following roles:

  • the clusterAdmin and readAnyDatabase roles on the admin database
  • the readWrite role on the products database

Create User with Roles

The following operation creates accountUser in the products database and gives the user the readWrite and dbAdmin roles.

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.

use products
db.createUser(
   {
     user: "accountUser",
     pwd: passwordPrompt(),  // Or  "<cleartext password>"
     roles: [ "readWrite", "dbAdmin" ]
   }
)

Create User without Roles

The following operation creates a user named reportsUser in the admin database but does not yet assign roles:

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.

use admin
db.createUser(
   {
     user: "reportsUser",
     pwd: passwordPrompt(),  // Or  "<cleartext password>"
     roles: [ ]
   }
)

Create Administrative User with Roles

The following operation creates a user named appAdmin in the admin database and gives the user readWrite access to the config database, which lets the user change certain settings for sharded clusters, such as to the balancer setting.

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.

use admin
db.createUser(
   {
     user: "appAdmin",
     pwd: passwordPrompt(),   // Or  "<cleartext password>"
     roles:
       [
         { role: "readWrite", db: "config" },
         "clusterAdmin"
       ]
   }
)

Create User with Authentication Restrictions

The following operation creates a user named restricted in the admin database. This user may only authenticate if connecting from IP address 192.0.2.0 to IP address 198.51.100.0.

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.

use admin
db.createUser(
   {
     user: "restricted",
     pwd: passwordPrompt(),      // Or  "<cleartext password>"
     roles: [ { role: "readWrite", db: "reporting" } ],
     authenticationRestrictions: [ {
        clientSource: ["192.0.2.0"],
        serverAddress: ["198.51.100.0"]
     } ]
   }
)

Create User with SCRAM-SHA-256 Credentials Only

Note

To use SCRAM-SHA-256, the featureCompatibilityVersion must be set to 4.0. For more information on featureCompatibilityVersion, see View FeatureCompatibilityVersion and setFeatureCompatibilityVersion.

The following operation creates a user with only SCRAM-SHA-256 credentials.

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.

use reporting
db.createUser(
   {
     user: "reportUser256",
     pwd: passwordPrompt(),   // Or  "<cleartext password>"
     roles: [ { role: "readWrite", db: "reporting" } ],
     mechanisms: [ "SCRAM-SHA-256" ]
   }
)

If the authenticationMechanisms parameter is set, the mechanisms field can only include values specified in the authenticationMechanisms parameter.