[lug] Re: linux

[Dhruva B. Reddy]

So basically, as long as you have physical access to the machine, there is a way
to reset the root password?  Sounds scary.  Is it possible to do this remotely?
That's even more scary.

On Tue, Jun 19, 2001 at 09:01:05AM -0600, J. Wayde Allen wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Jun 2001, Danny Xavier wrote:
> 
> > I went to your linux site and found the content very
> > beautifully explained.I am using suse linux and would
> > like to know how to change the root password as I have
> > forgotten it.
> > There is no floppy drive on my machine
> 
> Hmmm ... forgetting the root password would tend to make things just a bit
> tricky since that means you won't be able to gain root priviledges.  You
> do have physical access to the machine though, so the thing that comes to
> mind would be to power it down, and load a rescue or install disk.  Since
> you say you don't have a floppy I'm guessing that means you have a CDROM?
>   
> The idea would be to load a file system such as done for the system
> install that is not password protected.  You can often use your install
> disk this way, just switch to a different virtual console or kill the
> installation program.  You could then try to manually mount the disk
> partition containing your password file and null out the root password
> field.  If you get that far, rebooting the installed system should allow
> you root access with no password.  You should then be able to change the
> password to what you want it to be.
> 
> I'll crosspost this to the BLUG list in case someone has a better way.
> 
> - Wayde
>   (wallen at its.bldrdoc.gov)
> 
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