Assigning ROOT a password

[Larry Hartman]

On Monday 28 April 2008 04:34:54 am David Fletcher wrote:
> At 12:19 28/04/2008, you wrote:
> >On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 12:03 AM, Billie Walsh <bilwalsh at swbell.net>
> > wrote:
> >
> >Well, then ... if someone wanted to hack your system, it should be
> >within their capabilities to determine what type of OS you're running.
> >And since EVERYBODY knows that Ubuntu distros don't have a root
> >password, it can't be too hard for them to then change their focus to
> >cracking the other passwords on your system. Fot home systems, there's
> >*usually) not dozens of logins, so that lessens the job.
>
> I think the point here is that if the root password is enabled,
> everybody knows what the user ID is - it is root. So the cracker
> already knows the user ID and 'only' has to guess the password.
>
> When the root login is disabled a cracker has no idea what logins are
> available, and has little chance of guessing both a user ID and a
> password at the same time even if it is a weak password.
>
> Dave

Ok I think I get it now, root account is disabled vice enabled with no 
password?  I'm getting slower as I get older.

Larry