Does anyone experience this problem for root account?
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. Thanks, LN.
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
-----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-----
On Wed, 2003-06-25 at 02:45, Curtis Rey wrote:
The mount command I use in the rescue system, in case your unsure about the specifics is:
mount -n -o remount,rw /
No it isn't. In the rescue system, / is a virtual ram disk. The "real" / isn't mounted at all, so you can't "remount" it mount /dev/hda3 /tmp or whatever your / partition is
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tuesday 24 June 2003 15:53, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Wed, 2003-06-25 at 02:45, Curtis Rey wrote:
The mount command I use in the rescue system, in case your unsure about the specifics is:
mount -n -o remount,rw /
No it isn't. In the rescue system, / is a virtual ram disk. The "real" / isn't mounted at all, so you can't "remount" it
mount /dev/hda3 /tmp
or whatever your / partition is
Oops, that for init S. Lol. Sorry, Curtis. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2-rc1-SuSE (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE++Qi6iqnGhdjCOJsRAlnyAJ9B3LwsUhK2Rf1SjDD6O0tphEIOXwCeIjOU Xt8jy77fdniUfyrWSWmMXxE= =Mr7L -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Short posting: How do I get graphical root logins working on Suse 8.2 again? Long posting: On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 08:33 am, 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
Bad, bad, bad? Even from the console? Suppose I want to work on the home partition in a graphical environment? I have been getting a lot of bit-rot in my reiserfs partitions lately, and have to unmount them to run the (scary) fsck.reiserfs. That is why root's home is on /, so you can muck with the other partitions. And where possible I want a graphical environment, returning to terminal-type access is blast from the bad old days. A mistake as root can be damaging, yes, but the joy of *nix is that it will let you do what you want. If that proves to be a mistake... well, please recite with me, "Big guns make big holes!" (Coined after an rdist went wrong and copied a BSD (sunos) machine down on top of a sysv (solaris) one. Ouch, but it was freshly built and just had to be re-built.) It's not a security issue, once you have access to the console you have the box. I can never go past the rescue disks, "Have a lot of fun" without a chuckle. As unauthenticated root, yes I will have fun. And let's not mention booting into bash instead of init... So, back to my question, "How do I get root logins allowed again?" michaelj -- Michael James michael.james@csiro.au System Administrator voice: 02 6246 5040 CSIRO Bioinformatics Facility fax: 02 6246 5166
On Thu, 2003-07-03 at 02:50, Michael.James@csiro.au wrote:
Short posting: How do I get graphical root logins working on Suse 8.2 again? <snipped information>
If you are using KDM, you will need to look at a file called kdmrc. The one that you need to edit is in /etc/opt/kde3/share/config/kdm. Hopefully that will get you going. -- Marshall "Nothing is impossible, we just do not have all the anwsers to make the impossible, possible."
On Tue, Jun 24, 2003 at 05:25:17PM -0500, 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.
Thanks, LN.
Try one of the following. You are probably using grub instead of lilo. If so you will need to figure out how to edit the kernel's boot-time command line. 1. At LILO prompt, use linux init=/bin/sh then remove the "x" from root's line in /etc/passwd. Reboot, log in to your regular account, then do: su - root password 2. At LILO prompt: linux single then reset root's password: passwd -- Robert C. Paulsen, Jr. robert@paulsenonline.net
On Wed, 2003-06-25 at 00:45, Robert C. Paulsen Jr. wrote:
1. At LILO prompt, use linux init=/bin/sh then remove the "x" from root's line in /etc/passwd.
That's not a very good idea, it confuses the system. su won't repect it and will still require the password from /etc/shadow (at least in 8.2, in previous versions the system will stop using shadow completely for that user and will put the new password in the world readable /etc/passwd), while the console login will still log you in without a password even after setting it with passwd unless you restore the 'x' afterwards It's much easier to work with /etc/shadow, just delete the contents of the password field.
On Wed, Jun 25, 2003 at 12:51:53AM +0200, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Wed, 2003-06-25 at 00:45, Robert C. Paulsen Jr. wrote:
1. At LILO prompt, use linux init=/bin/sh then remove the "x" from root's line in /etc/passwd.
That's not a very good idea, it confuses the system. su won't repect it
Right -- you need to put the "x" back in before setting the pasword again. -- Robert C. Paulsen, Jr. robert@paulsenonline.net
On Wed, 2003-06-25 at 03:25, Robert C. Paulsen Jr. wrote:
On Wed, Jun 25, 2003 at 12:51:53AM +0200, Anders Johansson wrote:
That's not a very good idea, it confuses the system. su won't repect it
Right -- you need to put the "x" back in before setting the pasword again.
You didn't read what I wrote. In SuSE 8.2, just removing the 'x' from /etc/passwd isn't enough to be able to su without passwd. su won't repect it and will still read from /etc/shadow But I realised the whole point is moot. If you're root, you can just run 'passwd' to set a new password, since it won't ask you for your old one.
participants (6)
-
Anders Johansson -
Curtis Rey -
Marshall Heartley -
Michael.James＠csiro.au -
NOUTH, LENA R (CONTRACTOR) -
Robert C. Paulsen Jr.