[techtalk] Su slow?

[Nicole Zimmerman]

> The load average that top shows was round 0,60 0,90 0,90 etc...

Fairly normal... 

> the passwd file list a user that seems suspicious: "nobody".
> Dumb as I am this was my first look ever in the passwd file, so I don't know if
> that user should be there. I fear I've been subject to a trickery of
> oddyseus/cyclops fame. How to remove?

"nobody" is used for anonymous FTP, HTTP, and a few other things like
Samba and appletalk. It's a good thing to have around, and is not
malicious in intent. It is basically a login that isn't *really* a login
to your system and can only access certain "anonymous" parts,
occasionally used to run parts of daemons.

You can "remove" it if you *really* want to by removing the line in
/etc/passwd (so the 'user' can't log in)

-nicole

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