Recipe 8.13. Creating a System User
8.13.1 Problem
You need to know how to create system
users for programs like Postfix, Apache, or Squid. These programs
should have their own unique user accounts and not just all pile into
"nobody."
8.13.2 Solution
Both adduser and useradd can do
this. adduser works like this:
# adduser —system —no-create-home —group squid
Adding system user squid...
Adding new group squid (109).
Adding new user squid (109) with group squid
Not creating home directory
Check your work:
# cat /etc/passwd | grep squid
squid:x:109:109::/home/squid:/bin/false
Even though it lists /home/squid, a home
directory is not created.
Here's how useradd does it:
# useradd -d /dev/null -g squid -s /bin/false squid
8.13.3 Discussion
The nobody user is the default for a lot of daemons
and processes that need a system account, but an increasing number of
applications require their own unique users. Use a unique user
whenever possible, because it's a good
security practice. The
nobody account is a common cracker target, and
you don't want to expose all kinds of processes and
daemons to a common point of attack.
8.13.4 See Also
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