Summary

MikroTik RouterOS router user facility manages the users connecting the router from any of the Management tools. The users are authenticated using either a local database or a designated RADIUS server. Each user is assigned to a user group, which denotes the rights of this user. A group policy is a combination of individual policy items.

In case the user authentication is performed using RADIUS, the RADIUS client should be previously configured.

User Settings

The settings submenu allows to control the password complexity requirements of the router users.

Property

Description

minimum-password-length (integer; 0..4294967295; Default: )

Specifies the minimum character length of the user password

minimum-categories (integer; 0..4; Default: )

Specifies the complexity requirements of the password, with categories being uppercase, lowercase, digit, symbol.

User Groups

The router user groups provide a convenient way to assign different permissions and access rights to different user classes.

Properties

Property

Description

name (string; Default: )

The name of the user group

List of allowed policies:

Login policies:

local - policy that grants rights to log in locally via console
telnet - policy that grants rights to log in remotely via telnet
ssh - policy that grants rights to log in remotely via secure shell protocol
web - policy that grants rights to log in remotely via WebFig.
winbox - policy that grants rights to log in remotely via WinBox and bandwidth test authentication
password - policy that grants rights to change the password
api - grants rights to access router via API.
rest-api - grants rights to access the router via REST API.
ftp - policy that grants full rights to log in remotely via FTP. Allows to read/write/erase files and to transfer files from/to the router. Should be used together with read/write policies.
romon - policy that grants rights to connect to the RoMon server.

Config Policies:

reboot - policy that allows rebooting the router
read - policy that grants read access to the router's configuration. All console commands that do not alter the router's configuration are allowed. Doesn't affect FTP
write - policy that grants write access to the router's configuration, except for user management. This policy does not allow to read the configuration, so make sure to enable read policy as well
policy - policy that grants user management rights. Should be used together with the write policy. Allows also to see global variables created by other users (requires also 'test' policy).
test - policy that grants rights to run ping, traceroute, bandwidth-test, wireless scan, snooper, fetch, email and other test commands
sensitive - grants rights to change "hide sensitive" option, if this policy is disabled sensitive information is not displayed.
sniff - policy that grants rights to use packet sniffer tool.

skin (name; Default: default)

Used skin for WebFig

Default groups

There are three default system groups which cannot be deleted:

[admin@MikroTik] > /user group print 
0 name="read" policy=local,telnet,ssh,reboot,read,test,winbox,password,web,sniff,sensitive,api,romon,tikapp,!ftp,!write,!policy,!dude skin=default 

1 name="write" policy=local,telnet,ssh,reboot,read,write,test,winbox,password,web,sniff,sensitive,api,romon,tikapp,!ftp,!policy,!dude skin=default 

2 name="full" policy=local,telnet,ssh,ftp,reboot,read,write,policy,test,winbox,password,web,sniff,sensitive,api,romon,tikapp,!dude skin=default

Please note, that even the "read" group includes sensitive, reboot, and other important policies, meaning that this group should not be given to untrusted users. For truly limited groups, make a custom group, defining specific policies. All groups have access to file operations. Exclamation sign '!' just before the policy item name means NOT.

Router Users

The router user database stores information such as username, password, allowed access addresses, and group about router management personnel.

Properties

Property	Description
address (IP/mask \| IPv6 prefix; Default: )	Host or network address from which the user is allowed to log in
group (string; Default: )	Name of the group the user belongs to
name (string; Default: )	User name. Although it must start with an alphanumeric character, it may contain "*", "_", ".", and "@" symbols.
password (string; Default: )	User password. If not specified, it is left blank (hit [Enter] when logging in). It conforms to standard Unix characteristics of passwords and may contain letters, digits, "*" and "_" symbols.
last-logged-in (time and date; Default: "")	Read-only field. Last time and date when a user logged in.

Notes

There is one predefined user with full access rights:

[admin@MikroTik] user> print
Flags: X - disabled
# NAME GROUP ADDRESS LAST-LOGGED-IN
0 ;;; system default user
admin full 0.0.0.0/0 dec/08/2010 16:19:24

There always should be at least one user with full access rights. If the user with full access rights is the only one, it cannot be removed.

Monitoring Active Users

/user active print

The command shows the currently active users along with respective statistics information.

Properties

All properties are read-only.

Property	Description
address (IP/IPv6 address)	Host IP/IPv6 address from which the user is accessing the router. 0.0.0.0 means that the user is logged in locally
group (string)	A group that the user belongs to.
name (string)	User name.
radius (true \| false)	Whether a user is authenticated by the RADIUS server.
via (local \| telnet \| ssh \|winbox \| api \| web \| tikapp \| ftp \| dude)	User's access method
when (time)	Time and date when the user logged in.

Remote AAA

Router user remote AAA enables router user authentication and accounting via a RADIUS server. The RADIUS user database is consulted only if the required username is not found in the local user database.

Properties

Property	Description
accounting (yes \| no; Default: yes)
exclude-groups (list of group names; Default: )	Exclude-groups consist of the groups that should not be allowed to be used for users authenticated by radius. If the radius server provides a group specified in this list, the default-group will be used instead. This is to protect against privilege escalation when one user (without policy permission) can change the radius server list, set up its own radius server and log in as admin.
default-group (string; Default: read)	User group used by default for users authenticated via a RADIUS server.
interim-update (time; Default: 0s)	Interim-Update time interval
use-radius (yes \|no; Default: no)	Enable user authentication via RADIUS

If you are using RADIUS, you need to have CHAP support enabled in the RADIUS server for WinBox to work

SSH Keys

This menu allows importing of private and public keys used for SSH authentication.

By default, User is not allowed to log in via SSH by password if an SSH key for the user is added. For more details see the SSH page.

Public keys

This menu is used to import and list imported public keys. Public keys are used to approve another device's identity when logging into a router using an SSH key.

On public key import, is it possible to specify key-owner.

RSA and Ed25519 keys are supported in PEM, PKCS#8, or OpenSSH format.

Property	Description
user (string; Default: )	username to which the SSH key is assigned.
key-owner (string)	SSH key owner
public-key-file (string)	file name in the router's root directory containing the public key.

Private keys

This menu is used to import and list imported private keys. Private keys are used to approve the router's identity during login into another device using an SSH key.

On private key import, is it possible to specify key-owner.

RSA keys are supported in PEM or PKCS#8 format.

Property	Description
user (string; Default: )	username to which the SSH key is assigned.
key-owner (string)	SSH key owner
private-key-file (string)	file name in the router's root directory containing the private key.
passphrase (string)	key file passphrase