User management tricks
Inspired by the latest launchpad news, here is a better version of launchpadduser.py. It does more sanity checking, can be used as a module and allows you to use a different name locally than on launchpad (eg sudo ./launchpadduser.py –launchpad-name kiko christian) Enjoy!
In related news: It’s now happened too often that I had to walk a user through the boot with live cd/find partition/chroot/passwd hoops after they forget the password for their account. So I whipped up a shellscript that one can wget and run from a live cd. It searches for partitions with linux installs on them and allows you to the password for any account on them that has a usable password. So now these hoops are reduced to:
- Boot from a live cd
- Go to applications » accessories » terminal
- Type this: wget http://media.kaarsemaker.net/reset_passwords && bash reset_passwords
- Reboot
pedro
Why not use the recovery mode option from grub rather than messing around with the livecd and chroot.
Because this always happens to people who don’t know what the hell to do with a terminal. In the live cd they can start an irc client and ask for guidance :)
So what prevents someone to use this trick to gain access to other peoples linux systems?
I’m not sure I understand what you mean nico. You need local root access for this to work. It doesn’t open a remote hole or anything.
Say I am sitting at the Ubuntu linux system of some one else. I want to see what is on their but I don’t have the username/password.
What I meant was that it seems that I can use this trick, using a live CD, to gain access to that system. Or am I missing something
Yes you can, but you can do lots of things if you have physical access so that’s a moot point :)
True enough. I am glad though that my paranoid fantasies were validated 8-)