the root login problem; shadow bug?

[hawk@eyry.econ.iastate.edu]

I located the problem with the root login without password with the help of 
Mark Ciciretti.

passwd and shadow were out of sync; they had different entries.  This caused 
errors that were not reported until trying to turn shadow off.  It was 
necessary to delete all of the users, and remove all of their entries from the 
group files.

The behavior was that root could log into the consoles without a password.  
However, the password existed, and was necessary for su.  the passwd command 
would claim to change root's password, but didn't get it into shadow, 
apparently.  However, no error was reported.

I believe this came about when i tried to lift some lines from my old password 
file directly into the new file.  I don't recall whether I used vipw or not.

rick

-- 
These opinions will not be those of ISU until it pays my retainer.



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