[SLE] What's the default SuSE Password for "nobody"? (+ more Qs)
Howdy, 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)? later, JW -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq
Jonathan Wilson wrote:
Howdy,
At the moment I'm working on securing a SusE 6.4 box, and I'm wondering about the user "nobody"
Don't mess with it, it is the user that is run for some system tasks, I was watch a cron job run the other day with top, and it was 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?
You can "su" to nobody from root. If you want you could set a password, but that would defeat the purpose. It is just the lowest possible user on the system, used to do various tasks.
What is this user really for?
I know that apache runs as user wwwrun, group nobody. USER nobody Group nobody is a way of allowing tasks to run with a very low set of permissions.
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)?
Leave it alone. -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq
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)?
-- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq
hi On Mon, 21 Aug 2000, Jonathan Wilson wrote:
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 this user really for? for security ( and convenience). There are many daemons which must run as some user. if these are root, then possiblities of exploits are too much ( sendmail for one). so they run as nobody ( for instance updatedb. u have a choice to run it as nobody). also httpd has a separate user, www i
if you can see the shadow file, it will be nobody:*:some:things that means that you cannot login as long as you provide a password , which when encrypted will give you "*". But this cannot(hasnt) happen, so the account is disabled for logging in. But if you are root, su - nobody will give you the powers of nobody. think, but does not run as root.
What will it break if I remove the user, or change the password (do any daemons or programs se it?)? if u remove the user, u break the daemons-- inshort some ( if not most) of your configuration. but i think, if u want ot llive dangerously, u can change these to run as some user or root. if u change the passwd, u break the security ;-)
Does it need a shell? I see it has no home. no, since no one logs in as nobody
If no, can I set the shell to /bin/true (or should that be /bin/false)?
u can. cheers cheedu -- ***** cogito cogito ergo cogito sum: i think that i think, therefore i think that i am. --Devils Dictionary -- -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq
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fountai＠hursley.ibm.com -
omicron＠pes.edu -
wilson＠claborn.net -
zentara＠gypsyfarm.com