What are the Nobody IDs for?

[hookem1994]

I thnk this is a simple question? Can anyone shed some light on this for me. Can it be deleted? Any security vulnerbilities?

Thanks in advance,
Hookem1994

 

[easterbunny]

Hello,

I have seen problems when patching/package adding in Solaris if the nobody user account has been deleted.

-Eb

...So You're the Easter Bunny!

 

[Annihilannic]

It's used to 'own' a few services instead of root, for security reasons. For example, see the finger entry in /etc/inetd.conf. Nobody (heheh) should be able to log in as this user because it has no password. That's all I'm aware of.... Annihilannic.

 

[Soladm]

FYI,

I know that when Apache starts it gets started by "nobody," as Annihilannic stated previous, for security purposes.

Have a Great Day!!
~Sol
Sys Admin