[plug] Linux security idea - maybe

[Bernd Felsche]

On Fri, Jun 13, 2003 at 12:11:07AM +0800, Leon Brooks wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Jun 2003 23:37, Craig Ringer wrote:
> > Here's an example (DO NOT USE w/o first having a console open as
> > root, another root console running vi /etc/passwd, and a rescue disk
> > handy - just in case):
> 
> > 	/etc/passwd
> > root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/false
> > realsuper:x:0:0:real superuser:/realsuper:/bin/bash
> > ....other...users....

> > 	/etc/shadow
> > root:*:12165:0:99999:7:::
> > realsuper:MD5_PASSWORD_DELETED_FOR_SECURITY:12165:0:99999:7:::
> > ....other....users....

> > Now, a login as root will always fail, and a login as "realsuper"
> > will succeed and give superuser rights. Occasional confusion where
> > after login your username sometimes appears as "root" (on created
> > files for example) is not unusual, but is not to be stressed about.
> 
> How brave are you? (-:

Too brave; there are a number of applications (even KDE) that'll
prompt for root's password to temporarily acquire necessary
privilege.

> Delete *both* root passwords and have the ssh2 public key from a 
> seldom-used user on (an)other machine(s) in /root/.ssh/authorized_keys. 
> If you lose network, you can always use the init=/bin/bash option from 
> the console anyway. (-: You did password LILO, didn't you? :-)

What's the point of that? If somebody has physical access, they can
either boot from their own media or rip out your hard drive and plug
it into their own system.

-- 
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