LFCS chage Practice Question
An administrator wants to enforce that users in the 'contractors' group must change their password every 30 days, with a warning 7 days before expiry. Which command should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is that candidates may think `chage` can take a group name, but it requires a username. Also, `passwd` has similar aging options but also requires a username.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
chage -M 30 -W 7 contractors
None of the provided commands can be directly applied to a group. The `chage` command is the appropriate tool for password aging, but it requires a username as an argument. To enforce password aging on all users in the 'contractors' group, an administrator would need to iterate over each user in the group and run `chage -M 30 -W 7 <username>` for each.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
groupmod -p 30 contractors
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. `groupmod -p` is not a valid option; `groupmod` does not handle password aging.
- ✗
passwd -x 30 -w 7 contractors
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. `passwd -x 30 -w 7` can set password aging, but it requires a username, not a group name.
- ✗
usermod -e 30 contractors
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. `usermod -e` sets the account expiry date, not password aging.
- ✓
chage -M 30 -W 7 contractors
Why this is correct
Incorrect. `chage -M 30 -W 7` is the right command for password aging, but it requires a username, not a group name.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This LFCS practice question is part of Courseiva's free Linux Foundation certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the LFCS exam.