SYSTEMD.SYSTEM-CREDENTIALS(7)

NAME
systemd.system-credentials - System Credentials

DESCRIPTION

System and Service Credentials[1] are data objects that may be passed into booted systems or system services as they are invoked. They can be acquired from various external sources, and propagated into the system and from there into system services. Credentials may optionally be encrypted with a machine-specific key and/or locked to the local TPM2 device, and are only decrypted when the consuming service is invoked.

System credentials may be used to provision and configure various aspects of the system. Depending on the consuming component credentials are only used on initial invocations or are needed for all invocations.

Credentials may be used for any kind of data, binary or text, and may carry passwords, secrets, certificates, cryptographic key material, identity information, configuration, and more.

WELL KNOWN SYSTEM CREDENTIALS

firstboot.keymap
    The console key mapping to set (e.g. "de"). Read by systemd-firstboot(1), and only honoured if no console keymap has been configured before.

    Added in version 252.

firstboot.hostname
    This credential specifies the static system hostname to set during first boot. The user will not be prompted for the hostname. Note that this controls the static hostname, not the transient hostname, and only has an effect on first boot, unlike system.hostname (see below). Read by systemd-firstboot(1) and only honoured if no static hostname has been configured before.

    Added in version 261.

firstboot.locale, firstboot.locale-messages
    The system locale to set (e.g. "de_DE.UTF-8"). Read by systemd-firstboot(1), and only honoured if no locale has been configured before. firstboot.locale sets "LANG", while firstboot.locale-message sets "LC_MESSAGES".

    Added in version 252.

firstboot.timezone
    The system timezone to set (e.g. "Europe/Berlin"). Read by systemd-firstboot(1), and only honoured if no system timezone has been configured before.

    Added in version 252.

firstboot.machine-tags
    The machine tags to set, as a colon-separated list (e.g. "webserver:frontend:berlin"). Read by systemd-firstboot(1), and only honoured if /etc/machine-info has not been configured before. Written into the TAGS= field of that file, see machine-info(5) for details.

    Added in version 261.

login.issue
    The data of this credential is written to /etc/issue.d/50-provision.conf, if the file does not exist yet. agetty(8) reads this file and shows its contents at the login prompt of terminal logins. See issue(5) for details.

    Consumed by /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/provision.conf, see tmpfiles.d(5).

    Added in version 252.

login.motd
    The data of this credential is written to /etc/motd.d/50-provision.conf, if the file does not exist yet. pam_motd(8) reads this file and shows its contents as "message of the day" during terminal logins. See motd(5) for details.

    Consumed by /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/provision.conf, see tmpfiles.d(5).

    Added in version 252.

network.hosts
    The data of this credential is written to /etc/hosts, if the file does not exist yet. See hosts(5) for details.

    Consumed by /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/provision.conf, see tmpfiles.d(5).

    Added in version 252.

network.dns, network.search_domains
    DNS server information and search domains. Read by systemd-resolved.service(8).

    Added in version 253.

network.conf.*, network.link.*, network.netdev.*, network.network.*
    Configures network devices. Read by systemd-network-generator.service(8). These credentials should contain valid networkd.conf(5), systemd.link(5), systemd.netdev(5), systemd.network(5) configuration data. From each matching credential a separate file is created. Example: the contents of a credential network.link.50-foobar will be copied into a file 50-foobar.link.

    Note that the resulting files are created world-readable, it is hence recommended to not include secrets in these credentials, but supply them via separate credentials directly to systemd-networkd.service, e.g. network.wireguard.* as described below.

    Added in version 256.

network.wireguard.*
    Configures secrets for WireGuard netdevs. Read by systemd-networkd.service(8). For more information, refer to the [WireGuard] section of systemd.netdev(5).

    Added in version 256.

passwd.hashed-password.root, passwd.plaintext-password.root
    May contain the password (either in UNIX hashed format, or in plaintext) for the root users. Read by both systemd-firstboot(1) and systemd-sysusers(8), and only honoured if no root password has been configured before.

    Added in version 252.

passwd.shell.root
    The path to the shell program (e.g. "/bin/bash") for the root user. Read by both systemd-firstboot(1) and systemd-sysusers(8), and only honoured if no root shell has been configured before.

    Added in version 252.

ssh.ephemeral-authorized_keys-all
    Provides additional public keys, given in the customary authorized_keys format, for all users, for incoming connections via the generated AF_VSOCK and AF_UNIX socket units.

    The intended use of this is for a host system (in either VM or container configurations) to generate a keypair and inject the public key into the guest, using the private key to connect to any user account on the guest via ssh, without further authentication.

    Consumed by systemd-ssh-generator(8).

    Added in version 256.

ssh.authorized_keys.root
    The data of this credential is written to /root/.ssh/authorized_keys, if the file does not exist yet. This allows provisioning SSH access for the system's root user.

    Consumed by /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/provision.conf, see tmpfiles.d(5).

    Added in version 252.

ssh.listen
    May be used to configure SSH sockets the system shall be reachable on. See systemd-ssh-generator(8) for details.

    Added in version 256.

sysusers.extra
    Additional sysusers.d(5) lines to process during boot.

    Added in version 252.

sysctl.extra
    Additional sysctl.d(5) lines to process during boot.

    Added in version 252.

tmpfiles.extra
    Additional tmpfiles.d(5) lines to process during boot.

    Added in version 252.

fstab.extra
    Additional mounts to establish at boot. For details, see systemd-fstab-generator(8).

    Added in version 254.

vconsole.keymap, vconsole.keymap_toggle, vconsole.font, vconsole.font_map, vconsole.font_unimap
    Console settings to apply, see systemd-vconsole-setup.service(8) for details.

    Added in version 253.

getty.auto
    Used for controlling the execution mode of systemd-getty-generator. See systemd-getty-generator(8) for details.

    Added in version 258.

getty.ttys.serial, getty.ttys.container
    Used for spawning additional login prompts, see systemd-getty-generator(8) for details.

    Added in version 254.

journal.forward_to_socket
    Used by systemd-journald(8) to determine where to forward log messages for socket forwarding, see journald.conf(5) for details.

    Added in version 256.

journal.storage
    Used by systemd-journald(8) to determine where to store journal files, see journald.conf(5) for details.

    Added in version 256.

vmm.notify_socket
    Configures an sd_notify(3) compatible AF_VSOCK socket the service manager will report status information, ready notification and exit status on. For details see systemd(1).

    Added in version 253.

shell.prompt.prefix, shell.prompt.suffix
    Defines strings to prefix and suffix any interactive UNIX shell prompt with. For details see pam_systemd(8).

    Added in version 257.

shell.welcome
    Define a string to print when an interactive UNIX shell initializes. For details see pam_systemd(8).

    Added in version 257.

system.machine_id
    Takes a 128bit ID to initialize the machine ID from (if it is not set yet). Interpreted by the service manager (PID 1). For details see systemd(1).

    Added in version 254.

system.hostname
    Accepts a (transient) hostname to configure during early boot. The static hostname specified in /etc/hostname, if configured, takes precedence over this setting. Interpreted by the service manager (PID 1). For details see systemd(1). Also see firstboot.hostname above.

    Added in version 254.

home.add-signing-key.*
    Adds a new signing key for user records to the system. The credential contents should contain a user signing key, for example as reported by homectl get-signing-key. Multiple keys may be specified, and they will be put in place under the name of the credential name suffix (which must itself carry the .public suffix). For details see homectl(1).

    Added in version 258.

home.create.*
    Creates a new home area for the specified user with the user record data passed in. For details see homectl(1).

    Added in version 256.

home.register.*
    Registers an existing home area for the specified user with the user record data passed in. For details see homectl(1).

    Added in version 258.

cryptsetup.passphrase, cryptsetup.tpm2-pin, cryptsetup.fido2-pin, cryptsetup.pkcs11-pin, cryptsetup.luks2-pin
    Specifies the passphrase/PINs to use for unlock encrypted storage volumes. For details see systemd-cryptsetup(8).

    Added in version 256.

systemd.extra-unit.*, systemd.unit-dropin.*
    These credentials specify extra units and drop-ins to add to the system. For details see systemd-debug-generator(8).

    Added in version 256.

udev.conf.*, udev.rules.*
    Configures udev configuration file and udev rules. Read by systemd-udev-load-credentials.service, which invokes udevadm control --load-credentials. These credentials directly translate to a matching udev.conf(5) or udev(7) rules file. Example: the contents of a credential udev.conf.50-foobar will be copied into a file /run/udev/udev.conf.d/50-foobar.conf, and udev.rules.50-foobar will be copied into a file /run/udev/rules.d/50-foobar.rules. See udev(7), udev.conf(5), and udevadm(8) for details.

    Added in version 256.

import.pull
    Specified disk images (tarballs and DDIs) to automatically download and install at boot. For details see systemd-import-generator(8).

    Added in version 257.

userdb.user.*, userdb.group.*, userdb.transient.user.*, userdb.transient.group.*
    Configure JSON user and group records. Read by systemd-userdb-load-credentials.service, which invokes userdbctl load-credentials. These credentials directly translate to matching JSON User[2] and JSON Group[3] records. Example: the contents of a credential userdb.user.foobar will be copied into a file /etc/userdb/foobar.user, and userdb.group.foobar will be copied into a file /etc/userdb/foobar.group. Symlinks for the uid/gid will also be created in /etc/userdb/, as well as the corresponding.membership files. See systemd-userdbd.service(7), nss-systemd(8), and userdbctl(1) for details.

    Any passed user records must contain uid and gid fields. Any passed group records must contain a gid field. For both user and group records, the credential suffix (for "userdb.user.foobar" the suffix is "foobar") must match the user or group name field from the user or group record.

    Note that the records created for userdb.user.* and userdb.group.* credentials are created in /etc/userdb/ and the records created for userdb.transient.user.* and userdb.transient.group.* are created in /run/userdb/ (/etc/passwd and /etc/group are not modified).

    Added in version 258.

fsck.*
    Read by systemd-fsck@.service, systemd-fsck-root.service, and systemd-fsck-usr.service. See systemd-fsck@.service(8) for more details.

    Added in version 258.

quotacheck.*
    Read by systemd-quotacheck@.service and systemd-quotacheck-root.service. See systemd-quotacheck(8) for more details.

    Added in version 258.

imds.*
    Read by systemd-imdsd@.service(8).

    Added in version 261.

SEE ALSO

systemd(1), kernel-command-line(7), smbios-type-11(7)

NOTES

1.  System and Service Credentials
    https://systemd.io/CREDENTIALS

2.  JSON User
    https://systemd.io/USER_RECORD

3.  JSON Group
    https://systemd.io/GROUP_RECORD