From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 25 23:06:28 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 222B616A4CE for ; Wed, 25 Aug 2004 23:06:28 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtpout.mac.com (smtpout.mac.com [17.250.248.46]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1110B43D2D for ; Wed, 25 Aug 2004 23:06:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from mac.com (smtpin07-en2 [10.13.10.152]) by smtpout.mac.com (8.12.6/MantshX 2.0) with ESMTP id i7PN6QtR020614; Wed, 25 Aug 2004 16:06:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [10.1.1.245] (nfw2.codefab.com [199.103.21.225] (may be forged)) (authenticated bits=0)i7PN6PM0024903; Wed, 25 Aug 2004 16:06:25 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20040825225051.7730643D58@mx1.FreeBSD.org> References: <20040825225051.7730643D58@mx1.FreeBSD.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v619) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Message-Id: <62E23207-F6EB-11D8-8247-003065ABFD92@mac.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Charles Swiger Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 19:06:24 -0400 To: Ara@Avvali.COM X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.619) cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Change root user name? possible? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 23:06:28 -0000 On Aug 25, 2004, at 6:50 PM, Ara Avvali wrote: > Sorry if this might sound crazy, but is there anyway to rename root > account > to something else for extra security? Why, yes, you can rename root. Use vipw. If you setup sudo properly, you can even run a system without any valid uid=0 users existing at all, although it would be safer to simply give root a password of "*", which disables password-based logins but leaves the account present. Whether this gains you much security is another question entirely, and you risk breaking single-user mode and various low-level pieces of software which expect root to exist, but it can be done. [MacOS X ships without root enabled, for example.] -- -Chuck