I'm not new to Drupal module development, but am new to the security system. Our users authenticate via a system-wide NetID, so we don't need or want a password. We do, however, still need a local user account so users can post, change their profile, etc.
Because we needed this change fairly quickly, I've modified the /modules/user/user.module functions that handle new account creation, so they ignore password information. This isn't ideal. What I'd like to do is leave these changes in our security module and somehow avoid modifying Drupal's core User module.
I have tried using a hook_user_register function, but it seemed to be piggy-backing on the existing user_register function rather than replacing it.
I'm probably missing something very basic, but any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.