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

[Janice Gee]

>>Recently, I found this '*' curios symbol in /etc/passwd.
>>For example,
>>	bin:*:2:1::/bin:/bin/csh
>>Could you tell me what this symbol means?
On some systems (i.e. HP trusted systems), the password field
contains only a *, and passwords are stored in a separate file,
/.secure/etc/passwd.

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