newby

[Simon Ruiz]

Oops, I did not know this.
 
This is actually kind of disturbing to me.
 
So you mean there's a simple way for any user, any student, to get root access to our machines?
 
Can this be helped by MAKING a root password?
 
Hope this finds you all doing great!
 
Simon

________________________________

From: edubuntu-devel-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com on behalf of Gavin McCullagh
Sent: Fri 3/2/2007 4:45 AM
To: edubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
Subject: Re: newby



Hi,

On Thu, 01 Mar 2007, Simon Ruiz wrote:

> Unfortunately, I believe you're um, out of luck. There is no default
> username and password, so unless you get the username and password from
> the original installer, there's little chance that you'll be able to get
> in.

Hold on.  There's every chance.

I'm pretty sure this works but I'm not near an ubuntu machine I can reboot:

1. Boot the machine.
2. When the BIOS disappears and the boot menu comes up, press ESC.
3. Choose the second option (it should be the same as the first except for
   being called rescue)
4. The system should boot up to a root command line
5. Type:
        grep 1000 /etc/passwd
   this should give you an entry like:
        gavin:x:1000:1000:Gavin McCullagh,,,:/home/gavin:/bin/bash
   which indicates that "gavin" is the username of the first (and likely
   the admin) user on the system.  Note the username.
6. Type        
        passwd <username>
   and key in the password you want.

I'm pretty sure steps 1-3 should get you to a command line without a
password, after all there is no root password on ubuntu.  If this doesn't
work, you can try using a live cd to edit the shadow file.  I'll explain
how to do this if the above fails.

Gavin


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