[ILUG] Deleting Multiple Users at Once

[Daniel Shaw]

Paul Jakma wrote:
> On Sat, 23 Sep 2006, Daniel Shaw wrote:
> 
>>> Standard best practice at large sites is to /not/ re-use IDs.
>>
>> Except you don't reclaim the disk space.
> 
> It has nothing to do with reclaiming disk space. You can still delete 
> their files..
> 
> You still shouldn't reuse the ID.

Exactly. Read what I wrote. I agree. The point is that you can configure 
the OS to use a minimum UID, so you can force it to NOT reuse and ID 
without having to keep the old users.

Or do you mean usernames, not UIDs? In that case, I agree that the best 
way is to keep the username in the password file (or NIS/whatever).

I also think that you SHOULD clean out the shadow file. Should your 
server ever be compromised and the shadow file stolen, then potentially 
passwords for obsolete users that you can no longer contact could be 
cracked. It's possible that said users are reusing the same 
username/password pair elsewhere. By keeping stale user accounts on your 
system, even if they are disabled, you are putting the people that used 
to own the accounts at risk of identity theft or worse.

So therefore, even if you keep the identities, it's important to zero 
all passwords.

Just my opinion.
Cheers,
Daniel