Getting to root when the password has been lost

[The Grey Wolf]

In article <12 at tdatirv.UUCP> sarima at tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) writes:
# In article <15807 at shlump.nac.dec.com> cooper at hpsrad.enet.dec.com (cooper in the shadows) writes:
#  
# >>Do a partial restore of the OS.
#  
# >Unless the procedure has changed in the last 6 years you shouldn't
# >have to go this far.  You should just be able to reboot the system as
# >standalone and you are automagically logged in as root from the
# >booting terminal.
# 
# Things *have* changed in the last 6 years.  Many (or most) vendors now
# deliver a UNIX that requires the root password to enter single-user mode.
# Thus, without the root password, you cannot get into the standalone mode.
# The partial resore may indeed be the only 'legitimate' way back in.

Do most vendors deliver a UNIX which requires a password when booting from
portable media (tape, cd, etc...)?  I haven't seen one come in here or leave
here (we port UNIX).  My guess is that all one would need to do is boot the
miniroot, which comes up single-user, mount the root disk partition on, say,
/mnt, and edit the passwd file whichever way works, be it mv/echo, ed, or
whatever.

I don't recall any installation procedure being so menu-driven as not to
*grant* a single-user shell at some point -- if there are some of those out
there, while it is certainly more "secure", it also closes up an avenue
through which a desperate system administrator has his last recourse, i.e.,
if you need to selectively add files on a file-by-file basis (as opposed
to a categorical basis), menu-driven is not likely to grant this flexibility.


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# -- 
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# uunet!tdatirv!sarima				(Stanley Friesen)


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