db.createUser()¶

On this page

Definition
Behavior
Required Access
Examples

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.

copy

{
  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:

copy

"readWrite"

Or you can specify the role with a document, as in:

copy

{ 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¶

To create a new user in a database, you must have the createUser action on that database resource.
To grant roles to a user, you must have the grantRole action on the role’s database.

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.

copy

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.

copy

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.

copy

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.

copy

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.

copy

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.

copy

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.

← db.changeUserPassword() db.dropUser() →

db.createUser()¶

Definition¶

Roles¶

Authentication Restrictions¶

Behavior¶

User Id¶

Replica set¶

Encryption¶

External Credentials¶

local Database¶

Required Access¶

Examples¶

Create User with Roles¶

Create User without Roles¶

Create Administrative User with Roles¶

Create User with Authentication Restrictions¶

Create User with SCRAM-SHA-256 Credentials Only¶

`local` Database¶

Create User with `SCRAM-SHA-256` Credentials Only¶