Re: passwordless root login
On Mon, Oct 13, 2003 at 03:58:41PM -0400, Bijan Soleymani wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 12, 2003 at 06:30:32PM -0400, J. Bruce Fields wrote:
> > I'd like to configure a debian box to allow root logins without a
> > password; what do I need to do? The relevant line in the password file
> > is
> >
> > root::0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
> >
> > I thought the empty password field would do the job, but apparently not.
> > There is no /etc/shadow file.
>
> If you want to disable all passwords for login (and if there is no
> password for root then people can just su to everyone else anyways) the
> best way is to:
> edit /etc/pam.d/login
> comment out the line
> #auth required pam_unix.so nullok
> by placing a "#" at the beginning.
>
> Then the login program won't even ask for a password. That's what I use
> on my console. All other programs like ftp and ssh will still ask for
> passwords though. Just make sure you don't use telnet as it does use
> login. If you need to disable passwords for any other program then
> simply edit its pam file.
Thanks, but with those lines removed I end up with all logins failing
automatically and no request for a password. This may be something that
changed sometime between stable and unstable--I used to use a similar
trick to allow local gdm logins without a password, but that stopped
working at some point--I think the pam stuff has changed a bit.
--Bruce Fields
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