Password status - NP, PS, LK

[Lingaraja Patil]

Right now all the system logins in HP-UX Ver. 10.20 server have LK(Locked)status. If I change the status of these logins to NP(No Password), then what will be the side effects on the OS/the applications running on this OS.
What I know that "If status is NP, then user will not be authenticated, and he can't read password field". But the information I need is::: what is the use of making status into NP ???

[A. Clay Stephenson]

The primary use of making a login "NP" is to make your system extremely vulnerable to attack. If you are going to do this then do it right and also remove root's passwd hash while you are at it.

[Bill Hassell]

The use of NP is to to allow your system to be instantly turned into trash by the next hacker that finds it. All the logins may have the LK status because you changed to a Trusted system without using SAM (the recommended method). Unlock the accounts with this command:

/usr/lbin/modprpw -V

Now user's will still have their original passwords and your system is protected.

[Lingaraja Patil]

Ok. What I understand from ur replies is, changing status to NP is totally a bad solution. Am I right???
And the server is not a Trusted Host. Only System Logins are in LK status. Not all the users.

[Bill Hassell]

If by "System Logins" you mean user IDs such as lp, sys, bin, daemon, adm, etc then you are correct. These are not 'real' users but required for proper system operation. Leave them in the LK state. No user ID on your system should have NP status.

[niro44]

The status is "PS" if the user has a password, "LK" if the user has an
  administrative lock, or "NP" if the user has no password.