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updateUser

Definition

updateUser

Updates the user’s profile on the database on which you run the command. An update to a field completely replaces the previous field’s values, including updates to the user’s roles array.

Warning

When you update the roles array, you completely replace the previous array’s values. To add or remove roles without replacing all the user’s existing roles, use the grantRolesToUser or revokeRolesFromUser commands.

The updateUser command uses the following syntax. To update a user, you must specify the updateUser field and at least one other field, other than writeConcern:

{ updateUser: "<username>",
  pwd: "<cleartext password>",
  customData: { <any information> },
  roles: [
    { role: "<role>", db: "<database>" } | "<role>",
    ...
  ],
  writeConcern: { <write concern> }
}

The command has the following fields:

Field Type Description
updateUser string The name of the user to update.
pwd string Optional. The user’s password.
customData document Optional. Any arbitrary information.
roles array Optional. The roles granted to the user. An update to the roles array overrides the previous array’s values.
digestPassword boolean Optional. When true, the mongod instance will create the hash of the user password; otherwise, the client is responsible for creating the hash of the password. Defaults to true.
writeConcern document Optional. The level of write concern for the update operation. The writeConcern document takes the same fields as the getLastError command.

In the roles field, you can specify both built-in roles and user-defined role.

To specify a role that exists in the same database where updateUser 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.

Behavior

updateUser sends the password to the MongoDB instance in cleartext. To encrypt the password in transit, use TLS/SSL.

Required Access

You must have access that includes the revokeRole action on all databases in order to update a user’s roles array.

You must have the grantRole action on a role’s database to add a role to a user.

To change another user’s pwd or customData field, you must have the changeAnyPassword and changeAnyCustomData actions respectively on that user’s database.

To modify your own password and custom data, you must have privileges that grant changeOwnPassword and changeOwnCustomData actions respectively on the user’s database.

Example

Given a user appClient01 in the products database with the following user info:

{
   "_id" : "products.appClient01",
   "user" : "appClient01",
   "db" : "products",
   "customData" : { "empID" : "12345", "badge" : "9156" },
   "roles" : [
       { "role" : "readWrite",
         "db" : "products"
       },
       { "role" : "read",
         "db" : "inventory"
       }
   ]
}

The following updateUser command completely replaces the user’s customData and roles data:

use products
db.runCommand( { updateUser : "appClient01",
                 customData : { employeeId : "0x3039" },
                 roles : [
                           { role : "read", db : "assets"  }
                         ]
             } )

The user appClient01 in the products database now has the following user information:

{
   "_id" : "products.appClient01",
   "user" : "appClient01",
   "db" : "products",
   "customData" : { "employeeId" : "0x3039" },
   "roles" : [
       { "role" : "read",
         "db" : "assets"
       }
   ]
}
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