From owner-freebsd-questions  Sun Jul  4 10:24:59 1999
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From: Jonathon Doran <doranj@Colorado.EDU>
Message-Id: <199907041724.LAA05763@ucsu.Colorado.EDU>
Subject: Re: Use of user nobody
To: freyes@inch.com
Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 11:24:53 -0600 (MDT)
Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <199907040824.EAA27272@arutam.inch.com> from "Francisco Reyes" at Jul 4, 99 04:25:41 am
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> Recently I installed Squid based on the instructions in an article at
> freebsdezine.com
> Two of the steps involved changing the owners of directories/files to
> "nobody".
> 
> Is this safe? What does it mean?

Yes, it is safe.

> Anything special about this user?

This user has no privilages, can't login, has an invalid password, and doesn't
belong to any group.  This limits the ability to exploit bugs in programs
running as "nobody".  There is otherwise, nothing special about nobody.

Jon Doran


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