[ale] Hacking root password

Joe Knapka jknapka at earthlink.net
Wed Aug 9 11:30:45 EDT 2000


Another possibility might be to burn a pair of Slackware SCSI boot
and root diskettes. Unless you have a strange SCSI controller, there's
probably a set that will work for you. The Slack installer will just
give you a single-user, no-password prompt from which you can do
whatever you need to (it gives you a login: prompt, but you can
just enter "root" and be in). You may be reduced to using "ed" to edit
your password file, though, unless you've got a statically-linked
vi sitting on your system somewhere.

ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/linux/slackware/slackware-current/bootdsks.144/

and

ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/linux/slackware/slackware-current/rootdsks/

-- Joe

"Michael H. Warfield" wrote:
> 
> On Wed, Aug 09, 2000 at 08:44:38AM -0400, Carl Forsell wrote:
> > Well, back to this beast... I have been trying this suggestion as well as
> > others and have had no luck.
> 
> > I can catch it at the lilo boot and enter linux -s... it does take me to
> > single user mode... and then asks for the root password.
> 
> > I have noticed that the "recovery" disk that I have tried booting from is
> > generic and it appears as though the scsi controller is not being
> > initialized
> 
> > I pray to thee, oh gods of knowledge, help me to rise from this sea of
> > ignorance and dispair that are binding my very soul!
> 
>         Ok...  Have you tried the LinuxCare recovery CD?  If you don't
> have one or can't get one readily, I'm sure there will be people with
> some at ALE (maybe me).  You might try downloading off their web site
> (it's something like a 40 Meg ISO image) and burning it to a CD.  If
> THAT recovery disk doesn't recognize your SCSI controller, I'd be
> really currious what you scsi controller is!
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: John Hyland <john.hyland at zapmedia.com>
> > To: cforsell at roman.net <cforsell at roman.net>
> > Date: Friday, July 28, 2000 10:49 PM
> > Subject: RE: [ale] Hacking root password
> >
> >
> > >Carl,
> > >
> > >If you have physical access to the machine, can you just boot into single
> > user
> > >mode ('linux -s' at the LILO: prompt) and use 'passwd root' to change the
> > >password?
> > >
> > >- John Hyland
> > >
> > >----Original Message-----
> > >> From: Carl Forsell [mailto:cforsell at roman.net]
> > >> Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2000 5:15 PM
> > >> To: ale at ale.org
> > >> Subject: [ale] Hacking root password...
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> I have a customer's server that they lost the password, and
> > >> want me to hack.
> > >> They are running SuSE6.3 with scsi drives as sda1 & sda2. The
> > >> box is a Dell
> > >> PIII.
> > >>
> > >> I booted with the install disk, used the rescue disk and tried the
> > >> mount  -t ext2 /dev/sda1/mnt" command.  I tried to go to
> > >> /mnt/etc/ and edit
> > >> the passwd file (I have done this 5 or 6 times on other
> > >> machines and have
> > >> never had a problem).  On this box, I can not get to
> > >> /mnt/etc!!!  (I have
> > >> tried just about every imaginable combination of the "mount"
> > >> string - with
> > >> ext2, without ext2, with & without the -t, ...)
> > >>
> > >> I hacked a similar box that had IDE drives as hda1, 2. and 3
> > >> and had no
> > >> problem.  Any suggestions?
> > >
> >
> > --
> > To unsubscribe: mail majordomo at ale.org with "unsubscribe ale" in message body.
> 
> --
>  Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
>   (The Mad Wizard)      |  (770) 331-2437   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
>   NIC whois:  MHW9      |  An optimist believes we live in the best of all
>  PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471    |  possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
> 
> --
> To unsubscribe: mail majordomo at ale.org with "unsubscribe ale" in message body.

-- 
*** Joseph Knapka ***
In any formula, constants (especially those obtained from handbooks)
are to be treated as variables.
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