On 20 December 2010 15:26, Matthew Wild <mwi...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 20 December 2010 15:17, Gordon Burgess-Parker <gbpli...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > On 20/12/10 15:08, Simon Greenwood wrote: > > > > The issue with Windows is that there is a database at the core of the > > authentication mechanism, and this database can get damaged. Unix and > Linux > > are essentially based on flat files which can be edited with the correct > > permissions. It is possible to damage /etc/passwd and/or /etc/shadow in > such > > a way as to cause authentication failure, and also to corrupt your user > > space in such a way as to damage user configuration files, but it's also > a > > lot easier to recover them. > > > > s/ > > > > Ah. That makes things a bit clearer. Are there any "Howtos" as to how a > > (relative) newbie can recover from these sorts of damage? > > > > If it was a common problem I'm sure there would be :) > > To be honest the answer is just to make backups, and that's something > you should do regardless of the OS you use. Then just restore any > damaged files from backups. > > I don't know about anyone else on this list, but I've never seen such > corruption as we're discussing. Sure it can happen in theory, e.g. I > could open the system file up in my text editor (if I have root > access) and write some gibberish there. Otherwise I'm not sure how it > would happen - poorly coded software running as root could do it, but > I've never encountered such software that would write to e.g. > /etc/passwd. > > Right enough, but it's not impossible, just highly unlikely...
s/ -- Twitter: @sfgreenwood "Is this your sanderling?"
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