James Knott wrote:
Basil Chupin wrote:
I've nad the need to look at what is available on the 'net about what to do when one forgets what the root password is.
Is it really THAT simple on SuSE to alter the password for the root? Anyone can boot my system and go about altering my root password to be then able to steal all my secrets?
Yes. The first line of security, is physical security. Even without changing the password, it's easy to boot a rescue disk and access the files. The same applies to Windows etc. Even a password protected computer won't help, as a hard drive can easily be moved to another computer. The only way around this is to use encryption or prevent physical access to your computer.
Thanks to you and all others who responded. This has been a hole in my "education" about computers which has now been closed tightly. I have all my HDs sitting in cradles so that they all get locked away in a safe place at those times when the house is left unattended. This has been done to this point only with the monetary value, and the nuisance value, of the HDs in mind should they get nicked but now new thinking has to be put into place. I will need to look into the overheads involved in using encrypted file system(s) (encryption my slow processing down but by how much?) or at least putting sensitive data into one encrypted partition or something similar- perhaps keeping it on a CD/DVD and accessing it as needed (but what do you do with the passwords used to access the Internet and websites?). Thanks to all for the wake-up call :-). Cheers. -- Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.