-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tuesday 24 June 2003 15:33, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Wed, 2003-06-25 at 00:25, NOUTH, LENA R (CONTRACTOR) wrote:
Hello all,
I have installed Suse 8.2 pro. All is working just fine. Last night, I decide to do a software update...this morning, I turn on my computer, suddenly, it no longer recognizes password for root account. Apparently, password for root account get changed somehow. What's the heck happen? At this point, it look like the only way to fix this problem is for me to re-install...unless anyone know of better solution.
1. I hope you're not logging on to the graphical desktop as root? Bad, bad, bad idea. Use su or sux from a regular user account to do system administration, and only when you have it clear in your head what you want to do. A mistake as root can be very damaging
2. To reset root's password, boot, for example, from the rescue system, mount the / partition, edit /etc/shadow and clear the password field for root
3. root's password won't just change itself. If you can't log on, and you're certain it is the correct password, you should consider the possibility that the system has been cracked
The mount command I use in the rescue system, in case your unsure about the specifics is: mount -n -o remount,rw / This should give you read/write access and then it will be a snap to rm the password. If you don't have a firewall setup do so, and I would check into get some logs setup so if you suspect your getting infiltrated you can check the log files. Oh, and don't forget two things, reset/assign a password for root user and try to include a couple of symbols that are non alpha/numeric. Something as simple as MyRootPswd-4321 but don't do as I have in the sense of making it so convoluted you can't remember it or have to write it down (which in a public place like work defeats the purpose). Just in case you needed some pointers - - if this is old news then just disregard it. Cheers, Curtis. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2-rc1-SuSE (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE++PDMiqnGhdjCOJsRAiXrAJ9e7eQKIkrocvF1StfQnPhS+F2zvgCfQnqu hrLkivzZ5WkdxvKjZt2LFfE= =kxzs -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----