NIS, /etc/passwd and '+::::::' question

Hi, YaST by default creates a '+::::::' entry for NIS in /etc/passwd. I read that the entry should have a '*' in the second field in order to prevent logins of the user '+' when NIS is down. Is this a security problem under (SuSE) Linux or is this note a remedy from an ancient ancestor? (I quick test didn't work, but I haven't tried the +user, -@group etc. syntax I found in the FreeBSD passwd(4) but neither in Linux passwd(4) nor in the yp*(*) of Thorsten Kukuk.) Tobias -- This above all: To thine own self be true / And it must follow as the night the day / Thou canst not then be false to any man.