Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 15:02:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug White <dwhite@gdi.uoregon.edu> To: "Ian O'Friel" <Genius@glasgow.crosswinds.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Potential Problem.... Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980417145952.1625M-100000@gdi.uoregon.edu> In-Reply-To: <000101bd6a49$44e5a720$41f14ac2@metallica>
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On Fri, 17 Apr 1998, Ian O'Friel wrote: > I am setting up a system for friends and family to dial-up my PC running > FreeBSD 2.2.5. The machine has Advanced power Management so I edited rc.conf > so that the APM line read "YES" instead of "NO" but I mistakenly pur in "YES > with only one speech mark. I had set my machine up with several groups and > lots of users... but I found that after rebooting this problem caused an > error in the startup procedure and automatically logged in as root. I think > this could be a pontential problem if someone got access to the rc.conf file > diliberately removed a few characters and rebooted the would be logged in as > root which would allow them to create hell...... > > Any comments ? Actually, this is intentional. You were dropped to `single user mode', which activates only the console with root privs so you can fix what's broken. You can access this mode on bootup by typing `-s' at the Boot: prompt or by running `shutdown now'. If you ran the commands: mount -u / mount -a you could then edit rc.conf to fix your blunder, then `exit' the shell to continue booting. If you require security with your system, make sure the system and the console are locked up in a secure place. This way people can't bypass your password mechanisms without breaking into the room. Doug White | University of Oregon Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | Residence Networking Assistant http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | Computer Science Major To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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