Re: [aclug-L] admin

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

Bijaya Hamal <bj01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> I am a newbie at linux. I am using redhat 5.0 .I am had a successful
> install of it . Now this linux is running on a intel pentium box.
> I have a fright of forgetting the root password . I want to create  a
> parallel user
> who has equal rights as root and can telnet from any terminal and
> administer the box.The regular telnet facility already there.

It is indeed possible to create another user, but it will require a
password as well, so it doesn't really help if you forget your
password.  If you do forget the root password, it's possible to get a
sheel off your distribution's boot/rescue disk and manually reset the
password to something known.

Permitting telnet access to root is a bad idea, because it makes it
all that much easier for somebody to hack into your box.  One also
should never type in a root password (and hopefully never a user
password) over a telnet connection, because it is possible that it
could be intercepted since telnet is a cleartext (non-encrypted)
protocol.  A good alternative is ssh.

Note that once you have logged in to your normal account, typing
"su -" will log you in to the root account (after prompting you for
the password).

John

> I have looked up commands such as uid , setuid, but still have no hint .
> So, please help me. I will be grateful for your help. Thanks in advance .
> 
> 
>                      
> 
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-- 
John Goerzen   Linux, Unix consulting & programming   jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx |
Developer, Debian GNU/Linux (Free powerful OS upgrade)       www.debian.org |
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