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From: mjh@cs.vu.nl (Maarten J Huisjes)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: MINIX Security
Message-ID: <9360@star.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 19 Mar 91 09:16:27 GMT
References: <48053@nigel.ee.udel.edu}
Sender: news@cs.vu.nl
Lines: 17

ECO861771@ecostat.aau.dk writes:


} Just one very simple way to do it would be to take a disk editor, find the
} passwd file, and then change the password of root to nothing. This is very
} easy as long as the minix file system is not read/write protected on the
} host on which it resides. (Or encrypted).

} I guess this even works on big real life UNIX machines. Just take your
} Macintosh to the lab, disconnect the SCSI drive with the root file system
} and connect it to your mac. Then use a disc editor to make changes.

Yep, sure works. We just did exactly that. Connect the disk to an other
Unix system and read /dev/<disk> with a binary editor. Search for "root:"
--
Maarten Huisjes.	mjh@cs.vu.nl (192.31.231.42)
			(..!uunet.uu.net!cs.vu.nl!mjh)