Anyone know how to login as nobody?

flashingcurser · 07-01-2004, 07:14 PM

I am trying to follow a walk though for a mail server-- however in one part it asks me to login as a system user in this case the user "qmaild" (same type of user as nobody)

One really wierd note--in ps aux I see services being ran as the user "qmaild" but I cant find the user in /etc/shadow hmmmm.....

Any thoughts?

Thank you,

Dan

(oh its gentoo and various hardware)

Tinkster · 07-01-2004, 07:24 PM

As for the shadow-bit:

That's for security reasons ...

Many daemons are run by users without a valid login
(passwd -i <username>) which makes it IMPOSSIBLE
for the user to login. However, root can su - <username>
and do the required tasks ...

Cheers,
Tink

flashingcurser · 07-01-2004, 07:50 PM

Thank you. Is it normal that after su'ing that the command line still says :

host root #

Thank you

dan

If I change to anything else I get :

host <su'ed user> $

Hmmm...

Tinkster · 07-01-2004, 07:55 PM

Ummm ... no. That's rather odd, specially if you didn't get any error
messages from the su - nobody.

Cheers,
Tink

SBing · 07-01-2004, 08:41 PM

After su'ing, what is the output of "id" ? :)

Steve

idaho · 07-02-2004, 12:50 AM

Make sure you include the "-" when you invoke:
su - root

Using the "-" will make you inherit the environment of the user you are switching to. Without the "-" you keep your current environment - and prompt.

idaho · 07-02-2004, 12:52 AM

whoops, I meant su - <username>

force of habit...