RE: [gentoo-user] Forgotten root password on remote system

["Dave Nebinger" <dnebinger@joat.com>]

> >
> > Sorry, couldn't resist.  Of course there is no way at all to do this,
> nor
> > would you want to be able to, cause if you could do it anyone could and
> > would do it.
> >
> 
> That's not technically true and the sarcasm wasn't really warranted. I can
> think of a couple of possibilities, of course they assume a couple of
> other things but saying "there is no way at all to do this" is a little
> harsh and technically inaccurate.

Sarcasm was warranted because the OP obviously was thinking more about how
he could get root back than how insecure his system would be if it were
possible.  Or perhaps the OP wasn't talking about a remote system of his
own, but actually your system (which is remote to him), in which case anyone
that gave him a valid response is compromising their own system security.

"There is now way at all to do this" most certainly is accurate.  This
assumes that (a) the OP is neither a skilled hacker/cracker and (b) the OP
hasn't specifically set the system up to support this sort of thing.

Sure, there are ways to do it from within and without of the system if you
have those things in place.  From within the system a sticky bit on the
passwd executable would do the trick.  For access from outside the system
you could do anything from developing a web page to do it all the way down
to building a custom service that handles the change.

But none of these things are feasible *after* you've forgotten root's
password as you can't make the necessary file additions/modifications.

Saying "there is no way at all to do this" for the everyday user is most
certainly accurate.  Otherwise system security for linux would be a joke,
and we all know that's far from the case.

And I defy you to prove otherwise...



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