passwd hashes in master.passwd: disabled?

[Lowell Gilbert]

Seamus Abshere <sabshere at Princeton.EDU> writes:

> > The accounts marked with '*' are disabled :-)
> 
> but "root" has a * and I can still log in...

As root?  I don't think so, unless you edited the file by hand and
forgot to rebuild the database.  (pwd_mkdb(8))

> I thought it had something to do with "shadow" passwords or something.

master.passwd *is* the shadow password file.  
Ordinary users don't have permissions to read it.