Which of the following command should Simon run in the EC2 instance to disable user account passwords?

Simon recently joined a multinational company as a cloud security engineer. Due to robust security services and products provided by AWS, his organization has been using AWS cloud-based services. Simon has launched an Amazon EC2 Linux instance to deploy an application. He would like to secure Linux AMI.

Which of the following command should Simon run in the EC2 instance to disable user account passwords?
A . passwd -D < USERNAME >
B . passwd -I < USERNAME >
C . passwd -d < USERNAME >
D . passwd -L < USERNAME >

View Answer

Answer: B

Explanation:

To disable user account passwords on an Amazon EC2 Linux instance, Simon should use the command passwd -L <USERNAME>. Here’s the detailed explanation:

passwd Command: The passwd command is used to update a user’s authentication tokens (passwords).

-L Option: The -L option is used to lock the password of the specified user account, effectively disabling the password without deleting the user account itself.

Security Measure: Disabling passwords ensures that the user cannot authenticate using a password,

thereby enhancing the security of the instance.

Reference: AWS Documentation: Securing Access to Amazon EC2 Instances

Linux man-pages: passwd(1)