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Root account blocked

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  Root account blocked Dan <ganchya@gmail.com> - 2015-11-18 20:10 +0100
    Re: Root account blocked Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2015-11-18 20:50 +0100
      Re: Root account blocked Dan <ganchya@gmail.com> - 2015-11-19 00:20 +0100
        Re: Root account blocked Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2015-11-19 01:40 +0100
          Re: Root account blocked Himanshu Shekhar <irm2015006@iiita.ac.in> - 2015-11-19 14:40 +0100
            Re: Root account blocked Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2015-11-19 15:30 +0100
              Re: Root account blocked Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2015-11-19 18:30 +0100
            Re: Root account blocked Eero Volotinen <eero.volotinen@iki.fi> - 2015-11-19 16:30 +0100
            Re: Root account blocked Chris Bannister <cbannister@slingshot.co.nz> - 2015-11-20 09:50 +0100
              Re: Root account blocked Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@gmail.com> - 2015-11-20 14:00 +0100
                Re: Root account blocked Himanshu Shekhar <irm2015006@iiita.ac.in> - 2015-11-21 12:10 +0100
            Re: Root account blocked Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2015-11-20 10:10 +0100

#160764 — Root account blocked

Hi,

If a wrong password is used many times to log as root, does the root
account gets locked?

I was in a hurry and introduced a wrong password for root a few times
and now I can not log as root.

I think that I'm using the right password (although I can not be sure
100%). I checked the modification date of the files passwd and shawdow
and it seems that the root password has not been modified. I guess
that if somebody changed the password I should see it in the date of
shadow.

Best,
Dan

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#160771

On Wed 18 Nov 2015 at 20:05:38 +0100, Dan wrote:

> If a wrong password is used many times to log as root, does the root
> account gets locked?

No.

> I was in a hurry and introduced a wrong password for root a few times
> and now I can not log as root.
> 
> I think that I'm using the right password (although I can not be sure
> 100%). I checked the modification date of the files passwd and shawdow
> and it seems that the root password has not been modified. I guess
> that if somebody changed the password I should see it in the date of
> shadow.

Who is this "someone"? Have you given him access to your machine?

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#160777

On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 8:42 PM, Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:
> On Wed 18 Nov 2015 at 20:05:38 +0100, Dan wrote:
>
>> If a wrong password is used many times to log as root, does the root
>> account gets locked?
>
> No.
>
>> I was in a hurry and introduced a wrong password for root a few times
>> and now I can not log as root.
>>
>> I think that I'm using the right password (although I can not be sure
>> 100%). I checked the modification date of the files passwd and shawdow
>> and it seems that the root password has not been modified. I guess
>> that if somebody changed the password I should see it in the date of
>> shadow.
>
> Who is this "someone"? Have you given him access to your machine?
>

Thanks for your answer. I didn't give access to anybody. I just
wondered if the machine has been hacked. I doubted it, but I would
like to understand what happened and why I can not use my root
password anymore.

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#160785

On Thu 19 Nov 2015 at 00:12:31 +0100, Dan wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 8:42 PM, Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Wed 18 Nov 2015 at 20:05:38 +0100, Dan wrote:
> >
> >> If a wrong password is used many times to log as root, does the root
> >> account gets locked?
> >
> > No.
> >
> >> I was in a hurry and introduced a wrong password for root a few times
> >> and now I can not log as root.
> >>
> >> I think that I'm using the right password (although I can not be sure
> >> 100%). I checked the modification date of the files passwd and shawdow
> >> and it seems that the root password has not been modified. I guess
> >> that if somebody changed the password I should see it in the date of
> >> shadow.
> >
> > Who is this "someone"? Have you given him access to your machine?
> >
> 
> Thanks for your answer. I didn't give access to anybody. I just
> wondered if the machine has been hacked. I doubted it, but I would
> like to understand what happened and why I can not use my root
> password anymore.

Reset the root password as follows:

1. At the GRUB menu type 'e'.

2. Put "init=/bin/bash" at the end of the line beginning with "linux".

3. Press F10.

4. Mount the root partition read/write: mount -n -o remount,rw /

5. Type 'passwd'.

6. Reboot with CTL-ALT-DEL.

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#160801

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

This reminds of an outcome that makes your system vulnerable to data theft.
Following the above steps, anyone having physical access to the device by
any means (which is more likely in case of mobile devices), could gain root
access and do whatever one wants to do with the system as well as the data.
One solution suggested to me was to set a BIOS password. That's good.

I would like to know that is there any way once you forget your BIOS
password.

Regards
Himanshu Shekhar

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#160805

On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 07:01:41PM +0530, Himanshu Shekhar wrote:
> This reminds of an outcome that makes your system vulnerable to data theft.
> Following the above steps, anyone having physical access to the device by
> any means (which is more likely in case of mobile devices), could gain root
> access and do whatever one wants to do with the system as well as the data.
> One solution suggested to me was to set a BIOS password. That's good.
> 
> I would like to know that is there any way once you forget your BIOS
> password.

Yes. There will be a jumper on the motherboard that you can
connect to cause the NVRAM where the BIOS password is stored
to forget itself completely.

In some machines, a battery is removed simultaneously or instead
of using the jumper.

-dsr-

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#160814

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

[Thu, 19 Nov 2015 09:20:03 -0500] Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org>
wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 07:01:41PM +0530, Himanshu Shekhar wrote:
> > This reminds of an outcome that makes your system vulnerable to
> > data theft. Following the above steps, anyone having physical
> > access to the device by any means (which is more likely in case of
> > mobile devices), could gain root access and do whatever one wants
> > to do with the system as well as the data. One solution suggested
> > to me was to set a BIOS password. That's good.
> > 
> > I would like to know that is there any way once you forget your BIOS
> > password.
> 
> Yes. There will be a jumper on the motherboard that you can
> connect to cause the NVRAM where the BIOS password is stored
> to forget itself completely.
> 
> In some machines, a battery is removed simultaneously or instead
> of using the jumper.
> 
> -dsr-

Be careful, because this is not true for all BIOS-implementations. I
have seen HP computers where the BIOS can be locked permanently without
reset (unless the motherboard is exchanged which will mean there is
another BIOS). I am not quite sure, if this also applies to the
passwords which are required to make the system boot, because I have
never enabled such. Either way: Consult the documentation first or just
try it out.

HTH
Linux-Fan

-- 
http://masysma.lima-city.de/

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#160806

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

How about encrypting disks with luks?

Eero
19.11.2015 3.32 ip. "Himanshu Shekhar" <irm2015006@iiita.ac.in> kirjoitti:

> This reminds of an outcome that makes your system vulnerable to data theft.
> Following the above steps, anyone having physical access to the device by
> any means (which is more likely in case of mobile devices), could gain root
> access and do whatever one wants to do with the system as well as the data.
> One solution suggested to me was to set a BIOS password. That's good.
>
> I would like to know that is there any way once you forget your BIOS
> password.
>
> Regards
> Himanshu Shekhar
>

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#160848

On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 07:01:41PM +0530, Himanshu Shekhar wrote:
> This reminds of an outcome that makes your system vulnerable to data theft.
> Following the above steps, anyone having physical access to the device by

What above steps? The context is lost! :(

-- 
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people
who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the 
oppressing." --- Malcolm X

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#160854

On Friday 20 November 2015 08:47:25 Chris Bannister wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 07:01:41PM +0530, Himanshu Shekhar wrote:
> > This reminds of an outcome that makes your system vulnerable to data
> > theft. Following the above steps, anyone having physical access to the
> > device by
>
> What above steps? The context is lost! :(

Yes, I just gave up on it and accepted that I didn't understand. :-(

Lisi

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#160904

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On Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 6:27 PM, Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Friday 20 November 2015 08:47:25 Chris Bannister wrote:
> > On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 07:01:41PM +0530, Himanshu Shekhar wrote:
> > > This reminds of an outcome that makes your system vulnerable to data
> > > theft. Following the above steps, anyone having physical access to the
> > > device by
> >
> > What above steps? The context is lost! :(
>
> Yes, I just gave up on it and accepted that I didn't understand. :-(
>
> Lisi
>
>
Above steps here are those steps described to reset root password from the
Grub boot menu, given by Brian.
Sorry, I forgot to add those in the mail.

However, I was pleased to know that system manufacturers provide ways to
reset BIOS settings including BIOS password.
The jumper method and removing the CMOS battery method.

Regards
Himanshu Shekhar

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#160851

Himanshu Shekhar a écrit :
> This reminds of an outcome that makes your system vulnerable to data theft.
> Following the above steps, anyone having physical access to the device by
> any means (which is more likely in case of mobile devices), could gain root
> access and do whatever one wants to do with the system as well as the data.

Anyone with physical access can do whatever they want. You can set up
restrictions in the BIOS or set restrictions in the boot loader, but
they still can take the disk out and read or modify it with another machine.

To protect against this you can use encryption or set up a password on
the disk (ATA security functions). Note that encryption alone does not
protect against tampering, as the boot part cannot be encrypted.

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