I believe this is not "common practice" in the Linux/Unix workplace. Where your TA may be coming from is that in a Microsoft Windows world it is common practice to delete or more appropriately, rename the Administrator account. The general consensus is that if you know a username you know half of the login credentials, if you ever have a firewall, just look at the logs and see how many attempts you have for user root to try to log in on a daily basis. cgb
--- jason watts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > yes, all this helps... is disabling root a common practice out in the > real > world? it just strikes me as something you wouldent want to do... > > also, if root is deleted or disabled, dont you loose part of the > functionality of su ... the part where you just type su - and you are > now > root, provideing you know the pw? > > and from my experience with ubuntu (loaded a vm of it and changed the > passwords around) there is a root account, just not able to log in > graphicly. > > thanks for all the input, and im not trying to start a flameing war with > the > questions... just the enlightend disscusion to either do it, or pose an > argument of why not too. > > jason > > > >From: Phillip Rhodes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Reply-To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list > <[email protected]> > >To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list <[email protected]> > >Subject: Re: [TriLUG] to delete root, or not too? > >Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:40:08 -0500 > > > >jason watts wrote: > >>hello > >> > >>i spent today downloading installing and updateing (851 updates) > fedora > >>core 5. as part of my senior project. > >> > >>after i was done, i was told to add this account, and give him root > >>privlages. so, i added the user to the group 'root'. then i was > >>instructed to google and find out how to delete the root account since > i > >>said i dont think its posible. > >> > >>so, my questions are, > >> > >>1) how do i delete root? can i do it threw the normal way you delete > any > >>user account? > >> > >I was just able to do the following: > > > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] ~] useradd -u 0 -o falseroot > > > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] ~] logout > > > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] ~] su - falseroot > > > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] ~] userdel root > > > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] ~] logout > > > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] ~] su - falseroot > > > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] ~] cd /root/ > > > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] ~] touch foo > > > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] ~] su - root > >su: user root does not exist > > > > > > > >So I created a new user which is equivelant to root, deleted root, was > able > >to write > >a file in a dir which requires root permissions, but showed that root > no > >longer > >exists. > > > >Hope this helps. > > > > > >TTYL, > > > >Phil > > > > > >-- > >TriLUG mailing list : > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug > >TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ > >TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ > > _________________________________________________________________ > Find a local pizza place, music store, museum and moreĀ then map the best > > route! http://local.live.com?FORM=MGA001 > > -- > TriLUG mailing list : > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug > TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ > TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
