Hi I'm new to Linux and so am running Mandrake 9.1, and I usually log in as Root, which I know is bad so I went to use Userconf and I noticed there are loads of default accounts in there. Can these accounts be disabled or does the system use them in some way? Would someone actually be able to log in on them? Also, as far as I know the iptables config file is the ruleset the firewall uses, but mine is very badly set up at the moment (I'm even on on the same port as NetBios, would that be SMB running? I am not on a LAN, although I do have ADSL...). Could anyone help me to answer these questions, or give me advice on other security measures everyone should take to secure a Mandrake machine. Or you could point me at a good guide if you know of one.

Thanks in advance , keep fighting the good fight!

Howzit

Root normally has a ID 0. Yes there are services on your machine that needs a login therefor the system automatically creates them. These services are like apache webservers, print spoolers, etc. These normally have a ID 1 - 499 and they get executed upon boot up this is a way for the system users to run like root but not this limits the mount of damage the system user can do. Normal users get an ID from 500 up and have very limited access normally only allow to do damage to there own home dir. All these number mentioned above r default and can be set to other numbers if wanted.

About FW rules under MK 9.1 can't help with that as I mostly use RH

Thanks for your reply! I actually chose a number at random for my ID Number and it's within the range system accounts usually use so I'll change that!