What does '*' symbol in /etc/passwd means?

[IM EMAIL ASST SYS ADMIN]

>>Also, could be a convention for locking the login.  If the superuser
>>had typed in the '*', then noone can log in as bin.  I know of several
>>systems that used the '*' symbol to lock logins.  "used" is past tense
>>because they ran into problems using it as it is a UNIX metacharacter.
                                                   ^^^^^^^ a lie ^^^^^

A few people have asked me to be specific about what problems were had.
Well, I lied.  The problem was not due to the fact that '*' can be special.
After checking with the person that told me not to use '*' in the password
field, I find that the real reason was that the security scripts in Hayden's
UNIX System Security by Kochan and Wood would choke on the '*'.

flames to,

Ken Gibson
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