Clarification needed on default accounts vs built-in accounts

[estarz]

Page URL

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap/ontap-security-hardening/default-admin-accounts.html

Page title

Default administrative accounts

Summary

Never understood there is a difference between built-in accounts and default accounts but apparently there is.

I've always thought the admin account was a built-in, that could be locked but not deleted. I read: There are two default administrative accounts: admin and diag. and "ONTAP cannot remove or rename built-in accounts."

But still a few sections down we delete the admin account. Can we add a list of the built-in account so it's clear which ones cannot be deleted? Just tested deleting admin in one of my lab clusters so now I know admin can be done, some 13 years after starting to work on cDOT as it were :-)

Then we should probably also list autosupport in the default (and built-in) accounts because it's there on all clusters.

Thanks, Erik

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[netapp-dtulledg]

If you delete it, it will work. But after reboot, the accounts will reappear. You should lock it to disable access.

[estarz]

Interesting. Just rebooted both nodes in my lab cluster and after logging in again I see the admin account has reappeared.

Then I believe this section in the hardening guide should be change and recommend only locking the admin account. I mean, why provide the commands to delete it if we know it will come back?

[netapp-dtulledg]

Hi Dave,

You can delete that part.

We're trying to keep customers from locking themselves out by keeping admin.

Thanks, Dan

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From: estarz @.> Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2024 2:57 PM To: NetAppDocs/ontap @.> Cc: Tulledge, Daniel @.>; Assign @.> Subject: Re: [NetAppDocs/ontap] Clarification needed on default accounts vs built-in accounts (Issue #1485)

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Interesting. Just rebooted both nodes in my lab cluster and after logging in again I see the admin account has reappeared.

Then I believe this section in the hardening guide should be change and recommend only locking the admin account. I mean, why provide the commands to delete it if we know it will come back?

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[netapp-dbagwell]

Sorry for the delay. Section has been deleted and revisions should be live next week.