Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 19:06:24 -0400 From: Charles Swiger <cswiger@mac.com> To: Ara@Avvali.COM Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Change root user name? possible? Message-ID: <62E23207-F6EB-11D8-8247-003065ABFD92@mac.com> In-Reply-To: <20040825225051.7730643D58@mx1.FreeBSD.org> References: <20040825225051.7730643D58@mx1.FreeBSD.org>
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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
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