Special System Accounts

The root account is one of several special system accounts. Of these accounts, only the root account is assigned a password and can log in. The nuucp account can log in for file transfers. The other system accounts either protect files or run administrative processes without using the full powers of root.

Note:

UUCP was removed in the Oracle Solaris 11.4 SRU 12 release.

Caution:

Never change the password setting of a system account. System accounts from Oracle Solaris are delivered in a safe and secure state. Do not revise or create system files with a UID that is 101 or less.

The following table lists some system accounts and their uses. The system accounts perform special functions. Each account on this list has a UID that is less than 100. For a full listing of system files, use the command logins -s.

Table 1-2 Selected System Accounts and Their Uses

System Account	UID	Use
root	0	Has almost no restrictions. Can override other protections and permissions. The root account has access to the entire system. The password for the root account should be very carefully protected. The root account owns most of the Oracle Solaris commands.
daemon	1	Controls background processing.
bin	2	Owns some Oracle Solaris commands.
sys	3	Owns many system files.
adm	4	Owns some administrative files.
lp	71	Owns the object data files and spooled data files for the printer.
uucp	5	Owns the object data files and spooled data files for UUCP, the UNIX system-to-UNIX system copy program.
nuucp	9	Used by remote systems to log in to the system and start file transfers.