Root password changing by itself

[Ed Greshko]

Mario Vukelic wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-05-19 at 12:49 -0700, Vijay Krishnan wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>>     I have Ubuntu 7.10 installed on my machines. I strangely find
>> that I am often unable to login to the machine with my regular
>> root password using ssh. 
> 
> I'm not saying that it necessarily has something to do with it, but
> nevertheless, you did read and observe this security notice, yes?
> 

I question if there is a real problem or maybe the OP is looking to have 
some fun...  He has post the following on the fedora mailing list...

<quote>
      I have Fedora 5 and 6 installed on my machines. I strangely find
that I am often unable to login to the machine with my regular
password using ssh. Fortunately I have physical access to the machine,
which allows me to change the password back. Any idea what could be
the reason? Is it necessarily evidence of my machine being hacked
into, or could it also have something to do with my messing around
with ssh keys etc.? What should I do to protect against both
possibilities. In other words if it is a security breach, how do I
plug it and prevent the "hacker" from having continued access.
      If the password change is a result of something else, what are
the possibilities I should address.
</quote>