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Help Docs Server Administration Linux Server Administration Creating a Linux User

Creating a Linux User

Learn how to create a Linux user outside cPanel via SSH for specific needs. *Use caution, as this bypasses cPanel's security & management.*
cPanel LAMP Stack
2 min read

Overview

This guide walks you through the process of creating a Linux user account outside of cPanel. This may be necessary for specialized use cases such as SSH-only access or non-cPanel-managed file uploads.

Warning

Strongly discourage proceeding with this unless absolutely necessary.
This is NOT recommended due to the following security concerns:
1. The user will not be managed by cPanel.
2. Files uploaded by this user won’t follow standard cPanel permission policies.
3. User will not have access to WHM, cPanel, or phpMyAdmin.
If you need to access MySQL, you can still create a database user in cPanel and connect using a MySQL client.

Step 1: Create the Linux user

Run the following command via SSH as the root user:

useradd developer

This creates a user named developer with its own home directory.

Step 2: Set a password for the new user
passwd developer

You’ll be prompted to enter and confirm the password.

Step 3: Grant access to a specific directory

To allow this user to access a specific directory (e.g., /home/example), set the appropriate file access control:

setfacl -R -m u:developer:rwx /home/example
Step 4: Verify permissions

Check the permissions to confirm they were applied correctly:

getfacl /home/example

You should see output similar to:

user::rwx
user:developer:rwx
group::--x
mask::rwx
other::--x

If the other permission is not set to --x, correct it with:

setfacl -m o::--x /home/example
Step 5: Add the user to the directory group (Optional)

If needed, add the user to the group that owns the directory:

usermod -a -G example developer
Step 6: Test access restrictions

To confirm security is intact, create a test user:

useradd testuser
su - testuser
cd /home/example

Try running:

ls -l
touch testfile.sh

If access is denied, the permission restrictions are working as expected.

How to remove the user later

If you no longer need this user, you can delete them with:

userdel developer

To confirm they were removed:

su - developer

You should see an error like:
su: user developer does not exist

Summary

Creating a Linux user outside of cPanel is possible for advanced use cases like SFTP-only access. However, this method bypasses cPanel’s security and automation features, so proceed with caution and only when no other option fits.

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