Who is User: nobody? Worried!

ferroferro
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I heard my computer's hard drive clicking away and checked my proccess viewer(I am a novice) and saw user "nobody" doing something called "Locate.code", etc... I pulled my ethernet and I am unsure what was going on...



I have a cable modem (no firewall unless osx has a built-in one?)but I have never seen a user nobody before... can anybody explain...



this worries me...



who is nobody...?



Update: From now on I will search google first...



[ 06-15-2002: Message edited by: FERRO ]</p>

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    nostradamusnostradamus Posts: 397member
    Watch out! It might hurl a stick or spear towards your eye.



    [ 06-15-2002: Message edited by: Nostradamus ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 9
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    If you open NetInfoManager, choose the "users" directory in the column view and you'll see a bunch of different names. Most of these are the unix system "users" that do their tasks for different functions of the operating system. Nobody, unknown, root and daemon are all typical users in unix. I forget what exactly it does, but I'm sure someone here knows. In short, no worries.
  • Reply 3 of 9
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    As for the firewall, OSX does have a built-in one, called ipfw, and on grc.com your ports will show up as "closed."
  • Reply 4 of 9
    jeffyboyjeffyboy Posts: 1,055member
    I remember the first time I was looking around my system and saw user: daemon in OS X. I was like "Ahhh!!! Demonic hackers! Ma, get the holy water and a copy of Norton!"



    :eek:



    A little searching put my fears to rest.



    :cool:



    Jeff



    [ 06-15-2002: Message edited by: jeffyboy ]</p>
  • Reply 5 of 9
    nitridenitride Posts: 100member
    I'd avoid downloading apps from Hotline/Haxial's Hotline clone thing.



    If you see something that claims it boosts download speed, turbo charges RAM, accelerates anything its prolly a trojan horse.



    A big tip off is that REALBasic apps are always about 1 meg. in size due to the runtime engine's size. If you see any "simple" app that promises to make your computer faster and its around 1 meg. in size ignore it.



    Also don't download installers that want to ask for your Admin password to install SIMPLE sounding software.



    In Mac OS X nothing should need to be installed as Admin/Root to just function. Everything should be in normal user areas or maybe the "Local" domain to give it to everyone (you can log in as admin and install, if it still asks for a password be weary).



    Versiontracker.com has ratings which are really bogus, I have personally seen SpyWare/Stolen ShareWare repackaged as new have glowing rave reviews. Ignore the ratings, if they are all excessively positive or excessively poor. Trojan writiers crap all over legitimate software or even the original author of the software they stole and repacked to drive people to THEIR OWN STUFF.



    Basically be AWARE of what you download from reputable sources, be weary of excessively positive/negative Versiontracker.com reviews and avoid Hotline/message board posted files like they were covered in Anthrax spores dipped in Ebola virus.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Calm down, guys. There's nothing to see here.



    daemon, nobody, www, and unknown are "users" that Mac OS X uses internally for running certain services (even more if you've installed fink). What you saw was the system updating the "locate" database, something you can use to find files really fast. There are tasks like this that Mac OS X does nightly, weekly, and monthly that may surprise you like this if you don't know why it's happening. It's perfectly normal; it's part of Mac OS X's "housekeeping" to keep things tidy and running ship-shape. Most people never notice them because they activate really late at night at something like 3 AM.



    If you are feeling a little paranoid and want to setup your firewall, I suggest using BrickHouse. It's my personal favorite and I can walk you through the configuration if you need help (although the Assistant makes it pretty easy for the novice).
  • Reply 7 of 9
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> Nitride, buddy, pal, where'd you get this negative-nancy attitude? :confused:

    [quote]Originally posted by Nitride:

    <strong>If you see something that claims it boosts download speed, turbo charges RAM, accelerates anything its prolly a trojan horse.</strong><hr></blockquote>There are several perfectly legitimate download accelerators and TCP optimizers for Mac OS X. I have yet to find one such tool that is a virus or trojan in disguise. Thanks to Mac OS X's tools like fs_usage and tcpdump, it's not too hard to figure out if an app is doing something it shouldn't.

    [quote]<strong>A big tip off is that REALBasic apps are always about 1 meg. in size due to the runtime engine's size. If you see any "simple" app that promises to make your computer faster and its around 1 meg. in size ignore it.</strong><hr></blockquote>That's about the dumbest assessment I've read this week. Why people discount REALBasic apps is just beyond me... RB is just another language/API like Cocoa and Carbon. It's stupid to bash it because there are some bad developers who make ugly apps with it. I have several excellent apps that were made with real basic that I use regularly (including MacTracker, Smell-O-Mints, and SnapperHead). Sure, there's a bit of overhead incurred by using RB, but that's no reason to completely discount its apps.



    That said, there are apps under 1 MB that can make your system faster. Predinding updaters, shadow killers, network optimizers, etc. are all typically around one megabyte or less.



    [quote]<strong>Also don't download installers that want to ask for your Admin password to install SIMPLE sounding software.</strong><hr></blockquote>Well, I'll agree with that.



    [quote]<strong>Versiontracker.com has ratings which are really bogus, I have personally seen SpyWare/Stolen ShareWare repackaged as new have glowing rave reviews.</strong><hr></blockquote>Please, I would like you to point me to some of these "SpyWare/Stolen ShareWare" items you claim to see all over VersionTracker. One of the great reasons for VersionTracker's review system is that people can point out problems they have with software.



    [ 06-15-2002: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>
  • Reply 8 of 9
    ferroferro Posts: 453member
    [quote]Originally posted by starfleetX:

    <strong>Calm down, guys. There's nothing to see here.



    daemon, nobody, www, and unknown are "users" that Mac OS X uses internally for running certain services (even more if you've installed fink). What you saw was the system updating the "locate" database, something you can use to find files really fast. There are tasks like this that Mac OS X does nightly, weekly, and monthly that may surprise you like this if you don't know why it's happening. It's perfectly normal; it's part of Mac OS X's "housekeeping" to keep things tidy and running ship-shape. Most people never notice them because they activate really late at night at something like 3 AM.



    If you are feeling a little paranoid and want to setup your firewall, I suggest using BrickHouse. It's my personal favorite and I can walk you through the configuration if you need help (although the Assistant makes it pretty easy for the novice).</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I installed that after a little research...
  • Reply 9 of 9
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    [quote]Originally posted by FERRO:

    <strong>I installed that after a little research...</strong><hr></blockquote>Good, but ya' should've said that when you edited your first post! It would have saved me a few keystrokes.
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