Stupid mistake

Kholnuu · 01-01-2005, 11:13 PM

Wasn't paying attention to which terminal I was typing in, and instead of changing the shell of a test account, I changed root's shell to /bin/false.

Now I can't log into root, can't su into root, can't do anything with the root account. That's bad.

What's worse is that I'm not located anywhere near the computer. I can probably fix this issue with Knoppix when I get home, but that will be some time from now.

Is there a way I can fix this remotely?

Thanks in advance for any help anybody can provide, and excuse my idiocy.

Scruff · 01-01-2005, 11:32 PM

Not that I can think of

Some type of LiveCD locally will be your best bet.

slackie1000 · 01-02-2005, 02:47 AM

hi there,

do you have

Code:

/etc/sudoers

configured?
you could mess with 'sudo'. you can execute commands with 'root' right without shell invoking.
i don't see any other chance, considering that you are with remote access.

regards
slackie1000

Kholnuu · 01-02-2005, 03:42 AM

I didn't have sudo installed, no, but I downloaded the package. I'll install it once I get root access back.

Looks like my only plan is to wait until I can get back to the machine, boot up on my recovery CD, mount the harddrive, and edit from there.

Ah well.

btmiller · 01-02-2005, 02:32 PM

No need ... use su with the -s option. That lets you specify which shell to use, overriding the entry in /etc/passwd.

Kholnuu · 01-02-2005, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by btmiller
No need ... use su with the -s option. That lets you specify which shell to use, overriding the entry in /etc/passwd.

I believe you mean: su -s /bin/bash or something similar? I get the prompt for the root user, but then get immediately dumped back to the original account I was in.

http://www.rt.com/man/su.1.html

Quote:

-s, --shell shell
Run SHELL instead of USER's shell from /etc/passwd,
unless the user running su is not the superuser and
USER's shell is restricted

If I had screwed up any account other than root, I'd be good to go.

slackie1000 · 01-03-2005, 03:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kholnuu
I believe you mean: su -s /bin/bash or something similar? I get the prompt for the root user, but then get immediately dumped back to the original account I was in.

http://www.rt.com/man/su.1.html

If I had screwed up any account other than root, I'd be good to go.

no. you don't screw up with another user!

AFAIK, the '-s' option does not work if you are trying with a non-root user.

cheers,

slackie1000

n0sr · 01-03-2005, 04:52 AM

I looked at that man page link, did you try the "command" option?

Code:

su --command=passwd

Might try that, but as I read the man page it sounds like the command may not be run interactively.

n0sr · 01-04-2005, 03:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by n0xvb
I looked at that man page link, did you try the "command" option?

Code:

su --command=passwd

Might try that, but as I read the man page it sounds like the command may not be run interactively.

OK, I did a test on my system and got this command to work successfully:

Code:

su -c passwd

This is on a Slack system.