On Wed, 08 Sep 1999, you wrote:
> On Wed, 08 Sep 1999, Maurice Hendrix wrote:
> ----------
> From: John Aldrich[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Reply To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: 06 September 1999 16:03
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED - help - root password forgotten, etc
>
> On Sun, 05 Sep 1999, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > (1) There I was, in the wee-small-hours of Sunday morning, after a VERY
> > easy
> > > installation process during Saturday, happy and contented. I decided
> > that my
> > > root password was not 'secure' enough and changed it on my new system.
> > Another
> > > 'obvious' password, so, naturally, I didn't write it down! That's not
> > secure!
> > Sunday afternoon, I went back to the system...
> >
> > Can I get back inside the system without a complete re-installation?
> > The only saving grace is that it is a NEW, NEW, NEW system with 'nothing
> > to
> > lose'.
> >
> > At the LILO prompt, type "linux 1" and that should put you into
> > "single-user" mode where you can change the password again, then
> > reboot. :-)
> >
> I'd like to point out that some distro's (notably SuSE) have set-up
> single-user mode to require entry of the root-password aswell. In
> such a case you'd better hope you have a boot/root disk from which
> you can boot.
> mount the root partition to /mnt:
>
> # mount -t ext2 /dev/hda1 /mnt
>
I cant speek for SuSe but i can for Slackware and Redhat.
Doing what you describe will _not_ work in Redhat, but it will with
Slackware
An other idea is to hide a copy of /etc/passwd somewhere, when a
problem arises like this situation then just copy the file from its
secret location to /etc/passwd.
>
> > then edit the file /mnt/etc/passwd
> > and remove the password filed for the user root. Dont leave any spaces or
> > characters inbetween the two colons. Reboot the system, login as root with
> > an empty password and run
> > # passwd
> >
> > That should do it, me thinks
> > --
> > Maurice Hendrix
> >
> > snailmail: Fuji Photo Film BV Standard disclaimers apply
> > Dept. P1LPI
> > attn. M. Hendrix
> > PO Box 90156
> > 5000 LJ Tilburg
> > phone: +31 13-579 1370 or fax: +31 13-579 1385
> >
> > - This environmentally friendly message came to you with the aid of 100%
> > recycled electrons.
> --
> Regards Richard
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
Regards Richard
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
