Hi :) On Thursday 03 February 2011 14:59 Giles Coochey wrote > On 03/02/2011 14:40, Rafa Griman wrote: > > Hi :) > > > > On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 3:44 PM, James Bensley<jwbensley at gmail.com> wrote: > >> So on a virtual server the root password was no longer working (as in > >> I couldn't ssh in anymore). Only I and one other know it and neither > >> of us have changed it. No other account had the correct privileges to > >> correct this so I'm wondering, if I had mounted that vdi as a > >> secondary device on another VM, browsed the file system and delete > >> /etc/shadow would this have wiped all users passwords meaning I could > >> regain access again? > >> > >> (This is past tense because its sorted now but I'm curious if this > >> would have worked? And if not, what could I have done?). > > > > As the other said: DON'T delete /etc/shadow. > > > > Someone also mentioned you could modify the hash in /etc/shadow. This > > will work if you are root or have the right permissions with sudo. > > > > If you can reboot the system, what really works great is passing the > > following option to the kernel on the lilo/grub screen when the system > > > > boots: > > init=/bin/bash > > > > This will give you a shell without being asked for a password (unless > > the sys admin has done his homework ;) Now that you have shell access > > > > ... you are in charge so you can: > > - mount the / partition and chroot > > > > - edit /etc/shadow and delete the password hash > > > > - whatever you can imagine ... you decide ;) > > That would do it... There is single-user-mode (runlevel 1), just add the > word single to the kernel parameters line before bootup > > It will give you the same result and mount stuff without the need to > chroot etc... Yes, but S|Single|1 asks for root password to login ... And he doesn't have the root password ;) Rafa -- "We cannot treat computers as Humans. Computers need love." Happily using KDE 4.5.5 :)