System-user assertion

Ubuntu Core has been designed to operate without users, or with the Ubuntu SSO user created by console-confwhen the device first boots.

Some systems suppress console-conf and its user creation, and on those systems, the system-user assertion permits the creation of local system users on specific devices by their associated Brand store.

To create a system user on these systems, the system-user assertion, described on this page, needs to be embedded within a file called auto-import.assert that’s added to the system via the root directory of a removable USB storage device. For more details, see System user.

See System user for further details on creating a system user.

System-user assertion fields

The following fields can be used in a system-user assertion:

type:                   <system-user>
format:                 <2> # sets the format being used for the assertion
authority-id:           <authority account-id>
revision:               <int>
brand-id:               <account-id>
email:                  <user e-mail>
series:                 <list of series which should accept this assertion>
models:                 <models which should accept this assertion>
serials:                <optional list of one or more device serial numbers>
name:                   <optional person’s name>
username:               <system user name>
password:               <encoded password>
force-password-change:  <boolean> # used to force users to change their password after login. Password cannot be empty
ssh-keys:               <list>
user-presence:          <until-expiration> # users are only valid while the assertion is valid>
since:                  <UTC datetime>
until:                  <UTC datetime>
sign-key-sha3-384:      <key id> # Encoded key id of signing key

<signature>             # Encoded signature

The index is the tuple <brand-id, email>, with series being as specified by the model assertion. These assertions must be signed by the brand. The fields are then typically used in the following order:

  • serials limits the scope of the system-user assertion to devices with matching serials. This field can only be used with a revision of 1 or greater, and also limits the models field to accepting just a single model assertion.

  • password must be encoded and salted, following the format specified by crypt(3). You could use mkpasswd, for example: mkpasswd -m sha512crypt

  • since and until define a period between a UTC from date (since) and a UTC to date (until) during which a new system user is permitted to be created. An exception to this rule is if until-expiration has been set in user-presence (see below), in which case a user is removed when the corresponding assertion expires.

    Using since and util requires a password to be embedded within the assertion.

  • force-password-change (optional) requires that the password is set after login, and the new password cannot be empty.

  • user-presence (optional) when set to until-expiration means users created through the system-user assertion are valid until the expiration of the actual assertion. Requires that "format": "2", is also set.

See Assertion format for more details on fields common to most assertions.

The simple addition of such assertions to a device assertion database should not be enough to trigger the user creation. This must be initiated explicitly (via snap create-user, or in the context of the auto-import mechanism for assertions from removable devices, which requires physical access to the device).

Example system-user assertion

The following is a the JSON input for an example system-user assertion:

{
    "type": "system-user",
    "authority-id": "324hfanjkfqASdFQWfnawefhu8Jauhdj",
    "series": [
        "16"
    ],
    "brand-id": "324hfanjkfqASdFQWfnawefhu8Jauhdj",
    "email": "test@localhost",
    "models": [
        "pc"
    ],
    "name": "user1",
    "username": "user1",
    "password": "$6$OCvKy4w/Ppxp7IvC$WPzWiIW.4y18h9htjbOuxLZ.sjQ5M2hoSiEu3FpMU0PMdHQuQdBOqvk8p6DMdS/R/nU/rXidClD23CbSkSgp30",
    "since": "2023-01-16T18:06:04+00:00",
    "until": "2025-05-16T18:06:04+00:00"
}

The corresponding signed system-user assertion:

type: system-user
authority-id: 324hfanjkfqASdFQWfnawefhu8Jauhdj
brand-id: 324hfanjkfqASdFQWfnawefhu8Jauhdj
email: test@localhost
models:
  - pc
name: user1
password: $6$OCvKy4w/Ppxp7IvC$WPzWiIW.4y18h9htjbOuxLZ.sjQ5M2hoSiEu3FpMU0PMdHQuQdBOqvk8p6DMdS/R/nU/rXidClD23CbSkSgp30
series:
  - 16
since: 2023-01-16T18:06:04+00:00
until: 2025-05-16T18:06:04+00:00
username: test
sign-key-sha3-384: kKd-kgxTJSR-wm5OT5M-gVxo4zv0Y19AAloJE4dq7C0QlbPsdbof0G5g0lCpg0J_
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