full-disclosure - Root password change

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Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0603311232180.22945@localhost.localdomain>
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