The "nobody" user in Linux is a special user account that is used for unprivileged access to system resources. It is sometimes called the "anonymous user" because it is not associated with any particular user or group on the system.
nobody user has the following properties:
- UID: -2 (or 65534 in some distributions)
- GID: -2 (or 65534 in some distributions)
- shell: /sbin/nologin or /usr/sbin/nologin
- home directory: /nonexistent
- no password
The nobody user is used by various system processes and services to perform tasks that do not require special privileges or permissions. For example, some daemons use the nobody user to run server processes, such as web servers or file-sharing services, which do not need to access any user files or directories. The nobody user is also used by some network protocols, such as NFS (Network File System), to control access to shared files and directories on the network.
The nobody user is intentionally designed to have limited access to system resources and does not have permission to perform any administrative tasks. This is for security reasons, as it prevents any potential unauthorized access to the system.
In general, you should not modify or delete the nobody user account, as it is an important part of the Linux security model. However, some system administrators may limit the use of this account by configuring access controls and permissions for specific services and processes.