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  • standard user accounts - uucp,gopher,adm, nobody... - what are they, why are they there, when shall they be used?

    Posted on

     

    An example /etc/passwd:
    
    root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
    bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/sbin/nologin
    daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/sbin/nologin
    adm:x:3:4:adm:/var/adm:/sbin/nologin
    lp:x:4:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/sbin/nologin
    sync:x:5:0:sync:/sbin:/bin/sync
    shutdown:x:6:0:shutdown:/sbin:/sbin/shutdown
    halt:x:7:0:halt:/sbin:/sbin/halt
    mail:x:8:12:mail:/var/spool/mail:/sbin/nologin
    uucp:x:10:14:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/sbin/nologin
    operator:x:11:0:operator:/root:/sbin/nologin
    games:x:12:100:games:/usr/games:/sbin/nologin
    gopher:x:13:30:gopher:/var/gopher:/sbin/nologin
    ftp:x:14:50:FTP User:/var/ftp:/sbin/nologin
    nobody:x:99:99:Nobody:/:/sbin/nologin
    
    /etc/groups
    root:x:0:root
    bin:x:1:root,bin,daemon
    daemon:x:2:root,bin,daemon
    sys:x:3:root,bin,adm
    adm:x:4:root,adm,daemon
    tty:x:5:
    disk:x:6:root
    lp:x:7:daemon,lp
    mem:x:8:
    kmem:x:9:
    wheel:x:10:root
    mail:x:12:mail,postfix
    news:x:13:news
    uucp:x:14:uucp
    man:x:15:
    games:x:20:
    gopher:x:30:
    dip:x:40:
    ftp:x:50:
    lock:x:54:
    nobody:x:99:
     

    More complete list is in the documentation, which lists them, but does not explain what they are:

    https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Deployment_Guide/s1-users-groups-standard-users.html

     

    Why do we need gopher and uucp account on every single RHEL instance?

    Does anyone have a policy of assigning users to particular system groups?

     

    I can start by saying that wheel group is for users that should be able to become root through sudo. This would depend on the /etc/sudoers settings.

    nobody is for users that should not be able to log in to the system. For example cron jobs can be run as nobody user.

    by

    points

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