[plug] [Fwd: (Fwd) Forgotten Password]

[Garth Atkinson]

Christian wrote:
> 
> Garth Atkinson wrote:
> 
> > > This is Debian - it comes with sulogin setup to run by default so this
> > > won't work.
> 
> > Even with non-debian systems you still must know root's password for
> > single user...
> 
> I've used several systems for which this certainly wasn't the case (Red
> Hat 5.0 for example.  Some Slackware too I think).  My understanding is
> that if /etc/inittab specifies to load sulogin for single-user mode then
> a root password is required for a shell.  Otherwise you just get dumped
> into a root shell.  Everything I've ever read confirms this (compare
> "Essential System Administration" p 89 and the "Linux Administrator's
> Security Guide").  Tamara also just mentioned that she'd recovered her
> root password by booting directly into single user mode (for memory she
> runs Red Hat...?).  Maybe you've just never used a system that didn't
> run sulogin...
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Christian.
Spot on. As I only use Caldera releases I thought it quite normal that
single user mode requires a password. Tonight I checked COL
1.1,1.2,1.3,2.2 and 2.3 and they all launch sulogin in runlevel 1. Any
distribution that allows full root access without a password after
booting in single user mode should be taken outside and shot.