Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on April 26, 2006 06:07 AM
Boot loader passwords are the most asinine solution there is. The only thing they do is make it troublesome for you. It's like the old Novell approach of requiring a boot floppy to start the server. Dumb!
Problems with boot loader passwords:
1. You, or someone knowing the password must be present to boot the system. That means no remote reboots, unless you have a iLO or Drac card and I'm betting you don't.
2. A bootable CD, USB key or floppy disk instantly bypasses the "security" provided by the boot loader password.
So the grub password makes your life more inconvenient while offering no security at all!
As for single user mode not requiring a password... Perhaps you should get a better distribution. Single user mode has require the root password on all of my systems for a few years now. Hell, even Windows Recovery Console, the Microsoft version of single user mode, requires the administrator password.
Well, at least you made an MD5 hash of the password rather than putting it in plain text. I'll bet it's the same as your root password. Doh!
Next week; How to setup a Bios boot password. Followed by a post about removing the password in 30 seconds or less.
Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux help
Totally Asinine Solution
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on April 26, 2006 06:07 AMProblems with boot loader passwords:
1. You, or someone knowing the password must be present to boot the system. That means no remote reboots, unless you have a iLO or Drac card and I'm betting you don't.
2. A bootable CD, USB key or floppy disk instantly bypasses the "security" provided by the boot loader password.
So the grub password makes your life more inconvenient while offering no security at all!
As for single user mode not requiring a password... Perhaps you should get a better distribution. Single user mode has require the root password on all of my systems for a few years now. Hell, even Windows Recovery Console, the Microsoft version of single user mode, requires the administrator password.
Well, at least you made an MD5 hash of the password rather than putting it in plain text. I'll bet it's the same as your root password. Doh!
Next week; How to setup a Bios boot password. Followed by a post about removing the password in 30 seconds or less.
#