System Accounts Description

Hello Everybody,

i bring on the below line some description for system users and for what they used :

Description of accounts

• root :
  • Commonly called the superuser (UID 0), this is the account that system administrators log into to perform system maintenance and problem determination.

• daemon :
  • A user used to execute system server processes. This user only exists to own these processes (and the associated files) and to guarantee that they execute with appropriate file access permissions.

•  bin :
  • A second system account used primarily to break up owners of important system directories and files from  being solely owned by root and system. This account typically owns the executable files for most user  commands.

• sys :
  • sys user owns the default mounting point for the Distributed File Service (DFS) cache which is necessary before installation and configuration of DFS on a client. /usr/sys directory can also be used to put install images.

•  adm :
  • The adm user in the /etc/passwd is basically responsible for two system functions:
    1. ownership of diagnostic tools, as evidenced by the directory /usr/sbin/perf/diag_tool/
    2. accounting, as evidenced by System Accounting Directories:

/usr/sbin/acct
/usr/lib/acct
/var/adm
/var/adm/acct/fiscal
/var/adm/acct/nite
/var/adm/acct/sum

•  guest :
  • Many computer centers provide accounts for visitors to play games while they wait for an appointment, or to allow them to use a modem or network connection to contact their own computer. Typically, these accounts have names like open,guest, or play.

•  nobody:
  • An account used by the Network File System (NFS) product, and to enable remote printing nobody exists  when a program needs to permit temporary root access to root users. For example, before turning on  Secure RPC or Secure NFS, check /etc/public key on the master NIS server to see if every user has been  assigned a public key and a secret key. You can create an entry in the database for a user by becoming the superuser and entering: newkey -u username

You can also create an entry in the database for the special user, nobody. Users can now run the chkey program to create their own entries in the database.

•  uucp :
  • UUCP is a system for transferring files and electronic mail between UNIX computers connected by telephone. When one computer dials to another computer, it must log in. Instead of logging in as root, the  remote computer logs in as uucp. Electronic mail that is awaiting transmission to the remote machine is stored in directories that are readable only by the uucp user so that other users on the computer cannot read each other’s personal mail.

reference:

http://sysunconfig.net/aixtips/system_special_accts.txt