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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.Hawaii.Edu!news.caldera.com!enews.sgi.com!EU.net!sun4nl!phcoms4.seri.philips.nl!not-for-mail From: walter@see.my.signature (Walter Belgers) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: problems when root has no pw Date: 24 Jan 1997 11:42:24 +0100 Organization: Origin IT Systems Management/Nederland BV Lines: 25 Message-ID: <5ca3mg$o3u@giga.lss.cp.philips.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: giga.lss.cp.philips.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:34461 Hi, I have a system with FreeBSD 2.1.5 (and am very happy about it). I have no root password (to avoid big discussions I won't go into the question why not). I do want my system to be secure so I don't allow root logins on any tty and I have disabled the r* protocols. A nasty little thing I found out later was that in the standard FreeBSD distrubution, a screen locked with xlock can be unlocked by typing the root password (in my case: ENTER). Recompiling solved this. But now I still have one problem: I can't boot single-user. Because my console is insecure, I need to type the root password for a shell, but I don't have a password... and just hitting ENTER doesn't do the trick. I know this is not something to have sleepless nights about :) and I can live with it but I just thought I'd mention it. (Easy solution: use a password). Walter. -- Ir. W.H.B. Belgers, Internet Security Specialist phone: +31 40 2782753 Origin IT Syst.Man. /Nederland bv, Bldg VN-513 email: fax: +31 40 2784697 P.O. Box 218, 5600 MD Eindhoven, Netherlands W.Belgers@nl.cis.philips.com http://www.cis.philips.com/home/W.Belgers http://www.IAEhv.nl/users/gigawalt