full-disclosure - Root password change

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date: Fri Mar 31 18:34:22 2006
From: gboyce at badbelly.com (gboyce)
Subject: Root password change 

On Fri, 31 Mar 2006, Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu wrote:

> On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:21:13 EST, Michael Holstein said:
>>> Trivial to defeat.  Just boot in to single user mode with these kernel
>>> options:
>>> 	single init=/bin/bash
>>
>> Again .. only due to initial misconfiguration.
>>
>> Nobody should allow alternate switches to be passed to the kernel at
>> boot .. either by password-protecting the bootloader, or via firmware
>> (as with OpenBoot).
>
> Of course, if you're that paranoid, you *did* configure whatever the machine
> uses for a BIOS to only boot off the intended hard drive, right? ;)

In which case the person needs to remove the hard drive, and put it into a 
different system for the modifications (or mirroring).

For the most part, if an attacker has physical access to the hardware 
itself, you just lose.

--
Greg