CentOS - Jun 2008 - /etc/passwd.rpmnew changes "x" to "*"

What would be the effect of changing the password field in
"/etc/passwd" from "x" to "*"?  I noticed I have
an "/etc/passwd.rpmnew" file which changes the password of many
service accounts from "x" to "*".  I am wondering if I
should merge those changes into my "/etc/passwd" file.


--
Matt Seitz
Manager, File System Virtualization
Cisco Systems, Inc.
.:|:.:|:. 
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Matt Seitz (matseitz) wrote:
> What would be the effect of changing the password field in
"/etc/passwd" from "x" to "*"?  I noticed I have
an "/etc/passwd.rpmnew" file which changes the password of many
service accounts from "x" to "*".  I am wondering if I
should merge those changes into my "/etc/passwd" file.
>   
* tells it to look in /etc/shadow, where I'd expect you would find said 
"x" for no login.

> From: John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com>
> 
> * tells it to look in /etc/shadow, where I'd expect you would 
> find said 
> "x" for no login.
I'm confused.  My current "/etc/passwd" has "x" in the
password field for user "root", and I can log in as root.

The CentOS documentation also says that "x" means "use
/etc/shadow":

http://www.centos.org/docs/4/4.5/System_Administration_Guide/s2-redhat-config-users-process.html
http://www.centos.org/docs/4/html/rhel-isa-en-4/s1-acctsgrps-rhlspec.html

--
Matt Seitz
Manager, File System Virtualization
Cisco Systems, Inc.
.:|:.:|:.

[I forgot to changed the "digest" subject the first time I sent this. 
Resending with the correct subject.]
> From: Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org>
>
> In this case you DO NOT want to integrate these changes 
[...]
> This issue was caused in CentOS-4 (a /etc/passwd.rpmnew file) 
> due to an 
> update to the "setup" rpm in March ... and in this case, you can 
> remove/ignore that file.
Thank you for explaining all of this.  Is this issue documented somewhere?




--
Matt Seitz
Manager, File System Virtualization
Cisco Systems, Inc.
.:|:.:|:.  
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