The "nobody" user is not meant for interactive log ins. It's meant for programs (normally daemons) which don't want to run as a specific user (for security reasons). All programs have to have an owner for their processes, so if in doubt they setuid to "nobody" and group to "nogroup". Although you are prompted for a password there isn't one. As root have a look at the passwords file: /etc/shadow. The second field is a "*" which means no interactive login. If you really must switch to nobody (perhaps to check security issues for programs which run under that user id) switch to root, then switch to nobody. If you change the home path or the shell you'll break this ability. Leave it be. :)
At the moment I'm working on securing a SusE 6.4 box, and I'm wondering about the user "nobody" I see that it has /bin/bash set as a login shell, and If I try to login with ssh from another host, it does indeed want a valid password.
What is the default password?
What is this user really for?
What will it break if I remove the user, or change the password (do any daemons or programs se it?)?
Does it need a shell? I see it has no home.
If no, can I set the shell to /bin/true (or should that be /bin/false)?
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