theoretical question - can root's username be changed?

[Guy Fraser]

On Thu, 2005-01-12 at 21:50 -0500, Claude Jones wrote:
> On Thu December 1 2005 9:42 pm, V P wrote:
> > On 12/2/05, Claude Jones <claude_jones at levitjames.com> wrote:
> > > Subject line says it all...
> >
> > I just tried changing the name in /etc/passwd . The system came back
> > up on restart and normal users were able to login and do their normal
> > stuff, but "su -" failed saying "User root does not exist". Also,
> > su-ing the renamed root, admin by "su - admin" didn't work. It didn't
> > accept the passwd originally set for root. Probably the the name has
> > to be changed in /etc/shadow too. Rebooting into single user mode and
> > reverting the changes brought back the system to the initial state.
> > The test system was RHEL3AS.
> >
> > But mikes solution to having a user with root authority is a better
> > solution to whatever you are trying to acheive.
> >
> 
> I'm not really trying to achieve anything. I'm just curious, and couldn't 
> readily find the answer. I was hoping to spark a more interesting discussion 
> than endless dribble about a hapless user from Brazil. And I do appreciate 
> the responses, so far, and the time you took to experiment - I was a little 
> worried about trying what you just did. 
> 

Why don't you try it, and find out.

It may be a good exercise for you to understand how the system
is configured.

It would also be good if you relayed your findings back to the 
list as a discussion topic. I am fairly certain that some things 
are hard coded to give special privileges to "root" by name, and 
others by UID=0.

Like most people on this list, I don't have a good reason to 
spend time analyzing all the ramifications of changing the 
username of root, you may have a good reason. I would guess 
that finding any issues that arise from changing the username 
from root to anything else, could be considered a "bug". There 
is no theoretical reason that root username should not be able 
to be changed, and may through obscurity assist in system 
security.

I don't remember for sure, but I seem to recall the Bastille 
system hardening package changed root to something else and 
gave root limited privileges. You may want to look it up 
and read some of the documentation.