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Author Finding Low Privileged User
Michael B Allen

2007-04-16, 7:04 pm

Is there a tried and true method for finding the low privileged user on
a system? Most systems have a user like 'nobody' but not all. Is there
another user with no shell and no home dir that is ALWAYS present or is
there a way to find such a user?

I want to streamline my product installer but I think creating a user
is a little obnoxious.

Mike

TheGist

2007-04-16, 7:04 pm

Michael B Allen wrote:
> Is there a tried and true method for finding the low privileged user on
> a system? Most systems have a user like 'nobody' but not all. Is there
> another user with no shell and no home dir that is ALWAYS present or is
> there a way to find such a user?
>
> I want to streamline my product installer but I think creating a user
> is a little obnoxious.

What I have often seen is that the installer will ask what
a good user is and perhaps try and default to 'nobody' or something similar.
Gordon Burditt

2007-04-16, 7:04 pm

>Is there a tried and true method for finding the low privileged user on
>a system? Most systems have a user like 'nobody' but not all. Is there
>another user with no shell and no home dir that is ALWAYS present or is
>there a way to find such a user?


THe lowest privileged user is one that is not in use by any other
program. If it's in use by another program, it has privileges
associated with that (processes using it that can be killed, files
it can delete, etc.). The only way you can be sure it's not in use
by any other program is to create it yourself. The current uses
of "nobody" ought to be split up between "nobody000" thru "nobody999".

>I want to streamline my product installer but I think creating a user
>is a little obnoxious.


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