As well as Linux having an integrated firewall (NetFilter / Iptables), AIX comes with built-in filtering capabilities.
After creating a user account, the user has a *
in the password field (rather than a !
which is used to signify the password is stored in a shadow file : /etc/security/passwd). This *
means the new account is disabled until a password is set (using passwd or pwdadm).
I've noticed lines such as :
+:in /etc/group and
+:@string::::::
in /etc/password (string being the server name, something looking like the name of a group of machines/architecture/datacenter). Such entries are undocumented so far, and look like Vi typos (especially +:
), but after removing them, I couldn't login to this server anymore. I guess they're related to some proprietary/home-made solution for user authentication/machines inventory/... and that is specific to my company's machines.