What is this Process?

[Jeff Schroeder]

Sterling asked:

> What is the "nobody" user and the "portmap" process it is running?

The "nobody" user is typically a user without any file creation 
permissions (or at least very restricted permissions).  It's used for 
some processes such as Apache to ensure that nothing sensitive gets 
overwritten in the event of a malicious attack.

Portmap is part of the NFS (network filesystem) implementation and is 
used to allow access to other machines.  IIRC it's also used for 
certain RPC software, but don't quote me on that.  In any case, if 
you're not using NFS you probably don't want it running-- especially on 
an internet-connected machine.

HTH,
Jeff
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