passing bootable flags to init at boot ?
 

Hi,

I got interested in the processes of init and while i was reading the manual i stumbled upon a fact that i can pass bootable flags to init during boot, that initerests me very much for it is being a potential security threat if i can just boot as a single user at any time...

i know i can protect against that though, with password at boot.

what i dont know is how do i pass those bootable flags during boot to init, please help.
I'm using grub as bootloader.

Thanks a lot.

Are you intending to ask about boot flags to init? Or are you really asking about passing parameters to the kernel?

If the latter, you can simply type them at the grub boot prompt and hit enter (at least in the grub implementations I've seen). So typing and then continuing to boot normally would get you to single-user mode.

The man init has this info:


"BOOTFLAGS
It is possible to pass a number of flags to init from the boot monitor
(eg. LILO). Init accepts the following flags:

-s, S, single
Single user mode boot. In this mode /etc/inittab is examined and the
bootup rc scripts are usually run before the single user mode shell
is started.

1-5 Runlevel to boot into.

-b, emergency
Boot directly into a single user shell without running any other
startup scripts. etc etc..."

The option "1" to the kernel is great i can use it too, thanks, but when do i get to use those init boot flags then?

sorry for the late reply...

Someone who has access to the console has access to the machine. Period.

You can, and should, use boot-passwords and other things to prevent "casual access" to the console ... but physical security is needed too.