[CentOS] Lost root access

Robert Heller
Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:06:19 -0000

At Wed, 2 Feb 2011 14:44:01 +0000 CentOS mailing list <centos at
centos.org> wrote:

>
> So on a virtual server the root password was no longer working (as in
> I couldn't ssh in anymore). Only I and one other know it and neither
> of us have changed it. No other account had the correct privileges to
> correct this so I'm wondering, if I had mounted that vdi as a
> secondary device on another VM, browsed the file system and delete
> /etc/shadow would this have wiped all users passwords meaning I could
> regain access again?

No, it would not have.  It would have resulted in NOONE having access.

What you could have done is chroot to the secondary device on the other
VM and then simply reset the root password with the passwd command.

>
> (This is past tense because its sorted now but I'm curious if this
> would have worked? And if not, what could I have done?).



>

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Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller at deepsoft.com
Deepwoods Software        -- http://www.deepsoft.com/
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