Assigning ROOT a password

[Billie Walsh]

Michael Leone wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 12:03 AM, Billie Walsh <bilwalsh at swbell.net> wrote:
>
>   
>>  >
>>  If there's no "root password" how can a password cracker "crack" it.
>>  Using your regular password as "sudo" doesn't look obviously right to
>>  someone trying to crack your "root password" [ unless they know that
>>  root access is done by sudo on a particular system ].
>>     
>
> Well, then ... if someone wanted to hack your system, it should be
> within their capabilities to determine what type of OS you're running.
> And since EVERYBODY knows that Ubuntu distros don't have a root
> password, it can't be too hard for them to then change their focus to
> cracking the other passwords on your system. Fot home systems, there's
> *usually) not dozens of logins, so that lessens the job.
>
>
>   
I seriously doubt the "EVERYBODY" part. I certainly didn't till early 
last year when I first installed Kubuntu. I had to ask THE stupid 
question on the list about how to log in "root". Some nice person, 
without laughing to hard I hope, kindly informed me to just use my 
regular password. It was several more weeks before I found out about 
"sudo" in a terminal.The first time I ran into that I just guessed that 
my regular password  was what was required so I didn't have to ask 
ANOTHER  stupid question.

So not "EVERYBODY" knows.

-- 
Life is what happens while your busy making other plans.