[Mailman-Users] Install Question

[Tim Legg]

On Tue, 8 Jan 2002, J C Lawrence wrote:

> On Mon, 7 Jan 2002 22:56:51 -0800
> Dan Wilder <dan at ssc.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, Jan 08, 2002 at 12:45:30AM -0600, Tim Legg wrote:
> >> FreeBSD 4.4, Postfix
>
> >> I am preparing to install mailman-2.0.8 on my system according to
> >> my INSTALL document.  In step 1, I was told to create user and
> >> group mailman by modifying the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files.
> >>
> >> Is it good enough to create these accounts/groups by placing them
> >> alone on a single line, or should I fill in the other atributes?
>
> > You'll probably have to fill all those fields in.
>
> My preference:
>
>   # adduser --in-group mailman mailman
>
> Then edit /etc/shadow (if you're using shadow passwords, or
> /etc/passwd and set the passwd to "*" while making sure that the
> user's shell is something like /bin/flase, /dev/null, or similar.

Is there any reason the password must be a "*"?  It seams that this could
be a security risk.  Couldn't anybody just login as mailman and know that
the password is "*" and do all kinds of mean things?