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rlrouns
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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Coral Springs
Country: US
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Certifications: SANS GSEC, IBM Server Expert, CCNA, SANS Win2k Gold Standard, MCSE, Linux+, Security+
Working on: GCWN, CISSP
Total Posts: 235
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 Getting Root
I happened to be working with some guys on a solaris box the other day, and no one had the root password. Being the excellent guys that they were, they said, no problem, and had root in about 2 minutes with the OS CD. They told me that with basically any UNIX or Linux box, root can be had if you have a CD with the OS on it. They said something about mounting the CD, then they went into the directory where the password was, and deleted it, or put something else. Can someone please explain if this can be done on a linux box and how to do it, or any site with info on how to access the box and get root? Thanks!
Robert
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 01-15-02 12:53 AM
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ccieToBe
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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Blue Ridge, North Georgia
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Certifications: CCDA, CNA, MCP, Network+, A+, BSIT
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Re: Getting Root
quote:
Originally posted by rlrouns
I happened to be working with some guys on a solaris box the other day, and no one had the root password. Being the excellent guys that they were, they said, no problem, and had root in about 2 minutes with the OS CD. They told me that with basically any UNIX or Linux box, root can be had if you have a CD with the OS on it. They said something about mounting the CD, then they went into the directory where the password was, and deleted it, or put something else. Can someone please explain if this can be done on a linux box and how to do it, or any site with info on how to access the box and get root? Thanks!
Robert
By default in the BSDs you can boot into single user mode and change root's password by typing "boot -s" at the boot prompt which comes just before the OS is loaded. Single user mode has no concept of different user names so by default you can enter it with no password and do whatever you want including changing passwords. There are some things you can do to get around this like requiring users to enter root's password before gaining access to single user mode, but even when you do this your box is still very vulnerable to anyone with physical access to your box.
The details of how you go about doing this vary, but the concepts are the same for every *nix variant afaik.
You could also use a boot disk to change the password by booting from it, then mounting the appropriate partition(s) and changing the password just as you would normally. You can make it more difficult for someone to do this by setting the harddrive to be the first boot device and password protecting the bios settings, but someone could always just pull the BIOS batter if they have access to the box.
Bottom line: if you want to secure your box physical security is a huge component of the overall picture.
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01-15-02 02:47 AM
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pikejl
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Registered: Nov 2001
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Certifications: SCSA, SCNA, OCP, CCNA
Working on: SCJP, CCNP
Total Posts: 47
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01-15-02 10:36 PM
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