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Web Hosting and Cloud Computing Control Panels
www-data doesn't need a password at all and nologin or false should be its shell--it should be impossible to login as www-data.
If you're trying to login as www-data, it probably means you've configured your box to expect web applications to run under the www-data user and you want to be able to FTP or ssh in as that use to upload files (e.g. you're running without SuExec). We don't recommend that in a shared hosting environment, ever, and it's an unnecessary security weakness in a non-shared hosting environment. If you're having trouble getting suexec working, let us know what problems you're having.
But, yes, Virtualmin doesn't care how the www-data user is configured and whether a human can login as www-data or not.
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Thanks
I'll give "him" a /dev/null shell :)
www-data requires /bin/sh or you will break things like PHP
<div class='quote'>www-data requires /bin/sh or you will break things like PHP</div>
nologin doesn't break mod_php (I know because all of our boxes have nologin for the web server shell). But if he's running everything under suxec, the web server shell never comes into play.
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arg ....