From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Sep 1 06:53:27 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id GAA16065 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Tue, 1 Sep 1998 06:53:27 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from plains.NoDak.edu (plains.NoDak.edu [134.129.111.64]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id GAA16060 for ; Tue, 1 Sep 1998 06:53:25 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tinguely@plains.NoDak.edu) Received: (from tinguely@localhost) by plains.NoDak.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) id IAA26731; Tue, 1 Sep 1998 08:52:25 -0500 (CDT) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 08:52:25 -0500 (CDT) From: Mark Tinguely Message-Id: <199809011352.IAA26731@plains.NoDak.edu> To: s198322@ccs.sogang.ac.kr, satya@dspsoft.com Subject: Re: [Q] What is the "toor" in '/etc/passwd'? Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > I think it is a backup root login with a simple sh. so incase > you were unable to login as root due to say a corrupt shell, > you can use toor to login to a simple shell. > > I do not know how to activate the account. I cannot seem > to use passwd on it or login using the root passwd. toor is a backup superuser account. I have been saved several times by having another superuser account when the root account's default shell was corrupted, removed by a crash. the command 'passwd [-l] toor' will set password, and toor has the same restrictions as the root account, a person can only login into that account from a secure console. sudo is the better everyday way of doing superuser commands. next preferable, if you need a superuser shell use su. The downside of having a toor account is one more superuser account that could be broken into. for that reason, I set the toor password by using `vipw' and copying the encrypted password from the root account into the toor account. duplicate the root line, change the "root" account name to "toor" and change the shell. --mark. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message