Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:45:30 -0000 From: "Derekj Tourneo" <derekj@tourneo.com> To: <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org> Subject: One method to recover a lost root password Message-ID: <000001c7680c$0a7255f0$0dd3000a@homexp>
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How I recovered a lost root password in FreeBSD This was on a CyberGuard LX firewall, running version 4.2 BSD Luckily I did know one user name and it had no password. cgadmin Using the boot CD, pick option 4 for single use mode going through the country and keyboard going to the repair mode with CDROM/DVD option off the install menu, using the "live" CDROM filesystem gave me a root prompt Fixit# now mounting the hard drive, in my case /dev/ad0s3a mount /dev/ad0s3a /mnt now edit the master password file vi /mnt/etc/master.passwd on the root line, delete all characters between the first two :: to remove the root password altogether. hence ending up with root::0:0::00:Charlie &:/root:/bin/csh or something similar save the file now change permissions, but look at them first, make a note so you can put them back to the correct setting later chmod 777 /mnt/etc chmod 666 /mnt/etc/master.passwd reboot remove the CD and reboot the original system. For some reason my older FreeBSD version 4.3 filesystem did not like being mounted onto a FreeBSD 6.1 install CD Hence on reboot it made me do a manual fsck Then another reboot Now login as a user, cgadmin in my case get a prompt and run pwd_mkdb /etc/master.passwd This rebuilds the secure password database Now get another getty - say Alt-F4 and login as root Amazing!!!! Reboot if you like, set yourself a new root password and write it down this time I prefer a label on the bottom of the box, because if you have got this access, you can crack the password. Now don't forget to set the file security back to where it was chmod 755 /etc chmod 600 /etc/master.passwd Hope you enjoyed the day. Derek -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.11/723 - Release Date: 15/03/2007 11:27
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