Could exists two users root?

[Carme Torca]

Hi,

Could exists two users root? How can I create two roots?

Thanks,
Carmen.

[John Palmer · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You can't have two users called 'root' but you can have as mny users as you like that have a User Id of 0 (third field of /etc/passwd).

These users are effectively 'root' and can have their own passwords. They can be useful in certain circumstances but are generally frowned upon as security risks.

Regards,
John

[T G Manikandan]

root::0:3::/:/sbin/sh

This is the root entry in the password file.
Just create another user with uid 0 in the password file so that he has the same privileges as root.
mani::0:3::/mani:/sbin/sh

Edit your passwd file for the same.
I have mentioned a different home-dir for the user (/mani)
Make sure you create a directory as home-dir.

[Clemens van Everdingen]

Hi,

No ! You could have more users with uid 0 but this implicates security risks.

I remember one thread where Bill Hassel explained very well why not to do this.

You could search the froum on this issue.

C.

[Clemens van Everdingen]

Hi,

Found the thread already !

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x73a5ba808b46d611abda0090277a778c,00.html

C.

[Chuck J]

You can directly edit /etc/passwd and create a new user with the user id of 0. It's a little dangerous though, and you'd probabaly only want to do it on say a workstation or something. I would also recommend making a backup copy of /etc/passwd before you do this.

cp /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.bak