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-   -   terminal reveals my root password (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-security-4/terminal-reveals-my-root-password-191190/)

shabene 06-08-2004 02:28 PM

terminal reveals my root password
 
hi,

i'm pretty new to linux and have had a bit of a battle finding a distro that my puter gets on with, i have settled for mandrake 10. i live in the kde desktop at present and only fire up a terminal window when i really need to, emagine my horror when whilst showing a friend the basics and boasting of linux's security, i scrolled through previous commands i have typed, (using the arrow keys) and there it was, my root password!

surely this is not surposed to happen?

XavierP 06-08-2004 02:31 PM

It would only show it, in my experience, if you have typed it in without being prompted. All I can think is that you typed it before you typed "su" or you opened something which asked for it and you had given the terminal focus by accident before typing it in. Do you recall having to retype your root password recently?

shabene 06-08-2004 02:42 PM

well i can't recall having to retype it and i'm pretty sure i didn't type it by mistake, it should be pretty fresh in my memory as i only installed this morning, tho i'm not going to bet on it!

is there a way to clear the list of commands i have typed? maybe then i can put this worry to bed.

slakmagik 06-08-2004 04:17 PM

~/.bash_history - delete it or remove the lines.

(I often type in my password in the username field - getting ahead of myself - and get a funny feeling when I see it sitting there on the screen. So anything's possible.)

ppuru 06-10-2004 04:03 AM

you can control the size of the history and the history file by setting

HISTSIZE and
HISTFILESIZE

in /etc/profile.

Setting them to zero would disable history?


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