Sun Sparc Stations (at least the II's) had the ability to allow the
user to boot to single-user mode. (Don't remember the OS.)
When in the single-user mode, then the operator was the 'root'
operator and could change the password.
It was necessary to do this on one system I was using. I just got the
job, the previous employee had set the root password to god knows
what, and I was locked out of several features - since I wasn't the
root operator.
This 'feature' (booting to single-user mode) was not really
publicized, as it was a sort of 'loophole' in the system.
Regards,
James Jackson
Cameron Kaiser wrote:
If not root password then use another you got but
set system date
in firmware to a date PRIOR to the creation date of the user you
are logging in as then log in as that user. The system will panic
because your username/password are valid but can't exist yet
because of date and will bomb to single-user mode. Change root
password.
Yikes. What OSes have this nasty exploit besides Solaris?