[plug] Root password

[Adam Hewitt]

Hi All,

Leon Brooks wrote:
> On Thursday 11 November 2004 07:34, Joong Cho wrote:
> 
>>How do you retrieve the password for root? I accidentally changed the
>>password for root and I forgot my password. How do you retrieve
>>passwords in Linux?
> 
> 
> You don't retrieve passwords, they're write-only.

True, however "john the ripper" or "crack-a-jack" can brute force the 
password provided you have a decent dictionary file and a butt load of time.

> 
> If you're booting from LILO, hold down shift until you get a prompt, 
> then type the name of the kernel you're booting (typically "linux", or 
> type a tab to see a list), space, 1, enter.
> 
> If that fails, replace the 1 with "init=/bin/bash" then do this when it 
> boots:
> 
>     mount -o remount,rw /
>     passwd root
>     sync
>     sync
>     mount -o remount,ro /
>     sync
>     sync
>     reboot
> 
> If your LILO has a password set that you don't know, then boot Knoppix 
> or similar and read it from /etc/lilo.conf, then reboot and use it.
> 
> Once you're up again, *add* a LILO password that you'll remember, then 
> tell the BIOS not to boot from CD and add a memorable supervisor 
> password to that, too. The first time a machine gets stolen by amateur 
> idiots, you'll be glad you did - and you'll change anything else that 
> uses those passwords anyway.

None of this prevents someone from taking the hard drive out and putting 
it into another machine...And if the arguement here is that "amateur's" 
wouldn't know how to do that, then you may as well just not boot 
directly into X, because an amateur wont know what the hell to do with a 
command prompt.

<SNIP>