theoretical question - can root's username be changed?
akonstam at trinity.edu
akonstam at trinity.edu
Fri Dec 2 22:01:10 UTC 2005
On Fri, Dec 02, 2005 at 01:36:18PM -0600, Mike McCarty wrote:
> Guy Fraser wrote:
> >On Thu, 2005-01-12 at 23:16 -0500, Claude Jones wrote:
> >
> >>On Thu December 1 2005 10:36 pm, Craig White wrote:
> >>
> >>>Best to save feeble attempts of security through obscurity for Windows.
> >>
> >>I'm trying to get at a deeper understanding of the thinking that
> >>underlies Linux architecture - that's really the motivation of this
> >>thread. Your rhetoric, while it may be true, doesn't help. Why the word
> >>'feeble'? If everyone in the Linux world knows that the chance is good
> >>that there is a user called 'root' on any given Linux box, and that user
> >>has nearly unrestrained privileges, why would it be feeble to double the
> >>guessing that must go on to get at root's privileges, by changing his
> >>username. What is the advantage of every Linux system having this same
> >>user, 'root'? I make it a point when securing a Windows server of always
> >>deleting the administrator account and creating a new account with
> >>membership in administrators for administration purposes. Why is that
> >>concept flawed, or feeble, as you put it? It pretty much goes downhill
> >>from there with Windows, but, I see nothing wrong with that particular
> >>feature.
> >
> >
> >Ick... the "W" word. ;-)
> >
> >I do not disagree that root should be able to be changed to
> >whatever the system administrator wants it to be. Many
>
> [snip]
>
> One thing I can think of: There are e-mails sent to root
> from various subsystems to notify of events.
>
This can be dealt with with an alias.
--
=======================================================================
optimist, n:
A bagpiper with a beeper.
-------------------------------------------
Aaron Konstam
Computer Science
Trinity University
telephone: (210)-999-7484
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