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From: slsw2@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Re: P/OS security? (or how to break into a P/OS system)
Message-ID: <1991Apr16.134937.47433@cc.usu.edu>
Date: 16 Apr 91 19:49:37 GMT
References: <1991Apr12.170355.6406@news.cs.brandeis.edu> <41275@cup.portal.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: Utah State University
Lines: 29

In article <41275@cup.portal.com>, Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) writes:
> Today I was able to remove the hard drive from a Pro 350 before it 
> went to the scrap heap. When I got it home, and put it in my 350, 
> it booted right up into P/OS 3.1. Some kind soul defined a default
> accout on it, so I am able to get into the menu. Unfortunatly, the
> default account is _not_ the system account, and I am wondering if
> anyone knows of any way to finf out how I can get into the system
> account? I tried 'system', and password 'system', but that of course,
> didnt work. 

Well, I've never really dealt with P/OS, but a long, long time ago I was
involved with a group that had a similar problem with a PDP-11/60 that we
bought from another group at the site. It ran RSX-11M, but we didn't get
any passwords from the group from which we bought the machine. After a lot
of poking about in manuals, I found a way to get to the password file, which
in that version of RSX-11M was not encrypted.

While the machine was booting, executing the startup command file, I pressed
^C. That gave me an MCR prompt at which I could type a command. Since the
machine was executing the startup command file, the MCR prompt was attached to
the system account. In an obscure manual that I no longer have and don't
remember very well, I found the name of the password file. The MCR command
that I issued, then, typed the password file on the console.

Since P/OS is related to RSX-11M, it might work. Wish I could remember the
name of the account file, though...

Roger Ivie
slsw2@cc.usu.edu