Strange guest users!!

[Robert Holtzm]

On Mon, Jul 02, 2012 at 04:58:32PM -0400, Paul Smith wrote:
> On Mon, 2012-07-02 at 13:34 -0700, Robert Holtzm wrote:
> > My /etc/passwd file shows
> > "nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/bin/sh" which puzzels me. Any
> > explanation?
> 
> Various parts of a UNIX system use UID 65534 to represent an "anonymous"
> user.  For example, if your system is exporting filesystems via NFS
> (Network File System), then when a root user on an NFS client that is
> mounting your filesystem tries to access or create files on your
> exported filesystem, their UID will be mapped to 65534 (by default).
> This is just handy line in your /etc/passwd file so that if you run "ls"
> you'll see that username as "nobody" instead of the numeric "65534".
> 
> It's harmless, please ignore.  Although why it has a shell of /bin/sh
> instead of /bin/false or something similar, I'm not sure.  Most
> certainly the account is locked (no valid password) anyway so it doesn't
> really matter I guess.

Thanks for clearing that up.

-- 
Bob Holtzman
If you think you're getting free lunch, 
check the price of the beer.
Key ID: 8D549279
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