root acct disabled

[deepak_9]

Hi,

Getting an error saying "root account disabled. contact your system administrator" whenever tries to log with root. Please help !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thannks

[Sebastian Galeski_1]

Hi, additional question:
- do You try to acces vi telnet, console or X-clent,
- do You use trusted system
- do You define /etc/securetty
- which hpux

regards Seba

[Ian Dennison_1]

On the console or on a workstation?

Are you using some form of additional user control? Like Trusted Systems or PAM?

If on the console, reboot to single user mode and modify the /etc/passwd.

Share and Enjoy! Ian

[Alan Casey]

Root will always be able to login on the console.

Then you need to go into SAM / Users/groups
And reactivate the root user account.

[G. Vrijhoeven]

Hi,

Others have mentioned some interesting ideas, but i like to add one:

Check out /etc/passwd if you see an * in the passwd string of root, the root account is disabled.

if you are logged in chage the passwd.
boot into init S and reset the passwd.
update /etc/passwd with a SD kit.

etc,

Hope this will help,

Gideon

[deepak_9]

Hi Vrijhoeven,

Same is the case. The os is hpux11i. I can see "*" in the passwd value of root in /etc/passwd. But how to modify the /etc/passwd? What is SD kit?

[Alan Casey]

Hi,

You can TEMPORARILY REMOVE THE * FROM /ETC/PASSWD.
Just remove this caharater with vi command.
You should then have reactivated the root account but the password for root will be blank.
You'll then need to set root a new password for security.

[Ian Dennison_1]

If all passwords have '*' in them then you are using another package for user authentification and should not amend /etc/passwd directly.

if this is the case, try '/usr/lbin/modprpw -l root -k' on the console.

Cheers, Ian Dennison

[deepak_9]

Alan,
But how to remove this * from /etc/passwd since except root no other user has write permission to /etc/passwd file.

[Alan Casey]

Hi deepak,

If you do not have any root sessions via telnet
To see if there are any root telnet sessions:

The only way to resolve this is via logging in on the console.
root will be able to login there.

I don't know of any other way.

[Madhu Sudhan_1]

Deepak :

If you don't have any idle root sessions, one trick is to remove the serial cable connecting ups ups and your hp-box. It should automatically bring down the system. But ensure you do this at low traffic. Then boot thru single user mode and edit your /etc/passwd as other folks are suggesting you to do. Remember to plug your serial cable back .

This should certainly help.
Regards,