From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Dec 30 5:13:41 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from post.mail.nl.demon.net (post-11.mail.nl.demon.net [194.159.73.21]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E5F2137B433 for ; Sun, 30 Dec 2001 05:13:33 -0800 (PST) Received: from [212.238.194.207] (helo=tanya.raggedclown.net) by post.mail.nl.demon.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 16KfmO-00067H-00 for FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org; Sun, 30 Dec 2001 13:13:32 +0000 Received: by tanya.raggedclown.net (Postfix on SuSE Linux 7.3 (i386), from userid 500) id 0D7301171; Sun, 30 Dec 2001 14:13:31 +0100 (CET) Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 14:13:30 +0100 From: Cliff Sarginson To: FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Can I rename root? Message-ID: <20011230131330.GA1703@raggedclown.net> References: <20011229154552.B855@localhost> <20011230103317.A474@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20011230103317.A474@localhost> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.24i Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sun, Dec 30, 2001 at 10:33:17AM +0100, Rogier Steehouder wrote: > On 29-12-2001 15:45 (+0100), Rogier Steehouder wrote: > > A simple question: Can I rename root? > > > > I already renamed toor: no problem. Do any programs rely on the name > > 'root' being available or is it prefectly safe to use vipw and rename it > > to 'master' or 'admin'. > > I only got the advise: Don't. iThanks for the advise, but since noone > knew any programs explicitly, I did it anyway. > > Besides the user and group databases the following files mention root: > /etc/aliases I had already redirected root to my regular user: > no problem > /etc/crontab Replaced 'root' with 'admin' > /etc/ftpusers Not critical, but added 'admin' > /etc/gettytab User for autologin > /etc/inetd Don't use it > /etc/login.access Small change > /etc/login.conf Has a special entry for root > /etc/rc Changed 'chown root:wheel' in 'chown 0:0' > (Why isn't it in the first place?) > /etc/security Don't use it > /etc/syslog Small change > /usr/local/etc/postfix/postfix-script > Some minor changes > /usr/local/etc/webmin/... > Starts some daemons as root > > My daily security script finds no problems. X runs. I'd say it works > (for now). > Well, it's your system. Maybe you have not considered 3rd party scripts. What happens when you upgrade your system. My honest view (as a former Unix systems manager) it is a pointless change that I can see no reason for whatsoever. But who cares ? You can waste your time anyway you choose to .. :) Rememeber to tell people that you have done this when you ask questions in the future about installations mysteriously failing. -- Regards Cliff To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message