topic Re: Root Login in Operating System - HP-UX

Root Login

JohnMuir — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:13:02 GMT

I cannot login directly as root on my system but can su to root. Can someone advise me what is the cause of this please.

Re: Root Login

Cheryl Griffin — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:15:55 GMT

Maybe someone changed root's .profile or /etc/profile forcing su to login.

Re: Root Login

Robert-Jan Goossens — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:22:17 GMT

cat /etc/securetty
console

if you have "console" in the /etc/securetty file root can only login direct on the console.

Hope this helps,
Robert-Jan

Re: Root Login

JohnMuir — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:22:19 GMT

No the /etc/profile nor the .profile has not been changed to force this, one of the first things I thought of. The system is running 11.00 and is not set up as a trusted system, if any of that helps. I have also compared it to other systems I have and cannot find any obvious differences.

Re: Root Login

JohnMuir — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:35:12 GMT

Nope, not a trusted system so no /etc/security directory at all. Good tries though. Still looking.

Re: Root Login

Geoff Wild — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:35:35 GMT

Yes - look for console in /etc/securetty

Note - this is a good thing.

Rgds...Geoff

Re: Root Login

Victor BERRIDGE — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:36:34 GMT

The only reason I can see is as already metionned: the presence of a /etc/securetty file...

All the best
Victor

Re: Root Login

Robert-Jan Goossens — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:37:12 GMT

James,

/etc/securetty (not security) has nothing to do with trusted systems.

Re: Root Login

Geoff Wild — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:37:30 GMT

Okay - how are you logging in?

cde, telnet or ssh?

Rgds...Geoff

Re: Root Login

JohnMuir — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:40:10 GMT

Don't have a /etc/securetty directory either. Logging in using a telnet session.

Re: Root Login

Geoff Wild — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:46:38 GMT

Do you have access to the console? can you login as root there?

Rgds...Geoff

Re: Root Login

Geoff Wild — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:49:04 GMT

The only other thing I can think of - is maybe root has been disabled - check it out with SAM...

Rgds...Geoff

Re: Root Login

Fabio Ettore — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 07:59:07 GMT

Hi,

I too as the first thing would see the presence of /etc/securetty.
Since it is not the reason of the problem then it is very strange.

Additional info:
- does the problem happen suddenly? (patch management recently)
- what is the exact error message that you obtain when login as root?
- any restrictions in /var/adm/inetd.sec on telnet service?

Best regards,
Ettore

Re: Root Login

RAC_1 — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 08:19:55 GMT

Is the root password more than 8 chars long? Does it have special chars (such as @) in it?

Use only the first 8 chars of the password.

Also when you try to login directly, do you get any message in syslog? Does it give any message in syslog.log? And what message?

Anil

Re: Root Login

JohnMuir — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 08:42:59 GMT

It was because of the special characters in roots password. Thanks.

Re: Root Login

RAC_1 — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 09:01:05 GMT

Even if there is a @ character in password, you an try escaping it.

If your password is 12@abcde,

Key in as follows.

12\@abcde

Anil

Re: Root Login

bhavin asokan — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 04:50:42 GMT

hi,
pls note that 'securetty' is a file in the /etc directory

regds,

Re: Root Login

R. Sri Ram Kishore_1 — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 08:28:15 GMT

Hi,

Check out the following thread (EXACTLY same problem):
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=456516

You might also want to take a look at these threads:
a) http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=227754

b) http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=254809

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Sri Ram