root password problem

[T. 'Nifty New Hat' Mitchell]

On Wed, Jun 09, 2004 at 04:18:25PM -0400, Jenkins, Jeremiah wrote:
> Reply-To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> 
> Are you logging in at the console, or via telnet/ssh?
> 
> is it possible you did something that could have corrupted the passwd file
> (even though the other users work maybe root's hash got messed up.
> 
> last option, boot into single user mode, reset passwd for root and see if a)
> it stops working again, b) if it works period
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rodolfo Nunez [mailto:mr_fito at hotmail.com]
> 
> I downloaded Fedora Core 2 4 days ago and installed on two machines. I set 
> up Apache, MYSQL, PHP and started playing with them when one of the machines
> 
> "forgot" the root password. What I mean is that I cannot login as root even 
> tough I am sure I know what the password is. I can login with other I 
> accounts I created but not with the root account anymore.
> Funny things is that TODAY the other machine had the same problem! I know 
> the password for root and I know I am tipying correctly. I checked that caps
> 
> lock is not pressed, that the keyboards work...
> ???
> 

Rodolfo,

Are these boxes open and on the Internet.  Are you the only user that
has/had the root passwd.  Since two systems have 'changed' what is
common.  What changes have you or another root user made that are
common on both.

Have you modified any pam settings?  Have you turned on SELinux?  Are
you using LDAP, NIS, kerberos, or some other network authority for
user ID and authentication.

Note also that pam and login can limit login access. Scan the man
pages and configuration files.  i.e. "If the user is root, then the
login must be occurring on a tty listed in /etc/securetty.  Failures
will be logged with the syslog facility."  also from the login man
page "If special access restrictions are specified for the user in
/etc/usertty, these must be met, or the log in attempt will be denied
and a syslog message will be generated. See the section on "Special
Access Restrictions".

Do pwck and grpck tell you anything diagnostic.

The very first line in /etc/passwd should be root.
What is your's.

Do any of these
   sudo
   sudo cat /etc/messages
   su
   su -
   login root
   ssh root at localhost
respond in a useful or diagnostic way?

As the top poster indicated some of this may be invisible if you are
not root.  You may need to boot in single user mode or with the rescue
CDROM to see, diagnose or fix some of these errors.

-- 
	T o m  M i t c h e l l 
	/dev/null the ultimate in secure storage.