Bug#129988: S/390: secure install with a password?

[Jochen Hein <jochen@jochen.org>]

>>>>> "Stefan" == Stefan Gybas <gybas@trustsec.de> writes:

 Stefan> Jochen Hein wrote:
 >> I disagree.  If there is no password at all, *anybody* can access
 >> the root account.  If I'm setting up on a public machine (like I
 >> did here), I have a problem.

 Stefan> You can also do an automatic network setup if you specify
 Stefan> your network configuration in the parmfile (not yet
 Stefan> documented), 

Looks interesting - I'm tired of trying and setting up network every
time...  I think I should look into boot-floppies sources?  

 Stefan> this will not be possible any longer if you have
 Stefan> to enter an installation password.

How about a kernel parameter "installpassword=<secret>"?  If the
kernel does not know about it, it gets passed to init and you can read
it in scripts.

 Stefan> So you either shoudl also be able to specify this password in
 Stefan> the parmfile or the installer can create a random password
 Stefan> that must be entered when you make the telnet connection.

Parmfile for unattended setup is ok.  If it is not set, generate one
or ask.

 Stefan> I also thought of this. Maybe we can just write the password
 Stefan> to a file in /tmp (I'd like to avoid writing to /etc so the
 Stefan> initrd can be mounted read-only which a tmpfs mounted on
 Stefan> /tmp) and adjust login.c to check this password. What do you
 Stefan> think of this approach?

I think That would suffice for the install.

Jochen

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