Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 18:15:03 -0400 From: "Doug Reynolds" <mav@wastegate.net> To: "Annelise Anderson" <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu>, "Jesse Rock" <jesse@accretive-networks.net> Cc: "freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: emergency password problem Message-ID: <20020418222028.9F72248449@wastegate.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10204180007270.14557-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu>
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On Thu, 18 Apr 2002 00:22:16 -0700 (PDT), Annelise Anderson wrote: >On Wed, 17 Apr 2002, Jesse Rock wrote: > >> >> Please alert me if there is a more appropriate list for >> this question. >> >> I have a friend who called me up tonight in a panic with >> a problem that I do not have a solution for. >> Apperantly while in the process of changing passwords for >> both his primary user and root he was called away and when >> he returned to his dismay he no longer remembered the new >> password. >> >> Too complicate matters he has set an option that requires >> the root password in order to single user the machine as well. > >To quote Ted Mittelstaedt, "FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide," >"never set the console to insecure. If you do and you lose >the root password, you will have to reinstall FreeBSD." > >But....you could pop another drive in there, put even a minimal >FreeBSD installation on it, and then mount the partitions on >the existing drives, and fix /etc/master.passwd. The problem is >getting a password database; one way to do it would be to edit it, >(the version on the old installation), deleting the root password entry; >(but not the root account); copy it to the new /etc (after having backed >up the master.passwd on the new installation), and use vipw on the new >installation to get the password database rebuilt (with all the same >users but no password for root), copy all the relevant files over the >ones on the old installation....and reboot the old installation. > >Think about those steps--I haven't actualy done this. I _think_ that could be possible by using the fixit floppy too couldn't it? --- doug reynolds | the maverick | mav@wastegate.net PGP Public Key Fingerprint: 7FEC 10AA 056B F8DE AC1E 6965 FBBE 9601 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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