Crucial Exams

CompTIA Linux+ XK0-006 (V8) Practice Question

A security audit requires the service account named "backup" to be prevented from interactive, password-based logins without affecting its scheduled cron jobs. The administrator issues the command:

# passwd -l backup

Which statement correctly describes the resulting change to the account's entry in /etc/shadow and the practical impact of that change?

  • The third field is replaced with a value of 0, forcing the user to choose a new password at the next login but otherwise leaving the account fully usable.

  • The entire line for the backup account is removed from /etc/shadow, effectively deleting the account while leaving its UID available for already-running processes.

  • An exclamation mark (!) is prefixed to the existing hash in the password field, which locks password authentication for the account while still allowing non-password methods such as SSH key authentication or execution by cron.

  • The seventh field (password inactivity period) is set to 0, immediately disabling all forms of login and preventing any cron job from running under that account.

CompTIA Linux+ XK0-006 (V8)
Services and User Management
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