🚀 go-pugleaf

A while ago, Bill Unruh<unruh@physics.ubc.ca> begot:
>In <F5p6AI.569@scrum.muc.de> mibu@scrum.muc.de (M. Buchenrieder) writes:
>>and manually edit the /etc/passwd file to have an entry with an empty
>>password string and no corresponding entry in /etc/shadow, then you'll
>>always be able to login without password. Try it. Add a user manually
>>and login. I just tested it on a SuSE 5.3 system, using login.c v. 1.4 .
>>Using an FTP account to actually access the system is just a way to hide
>>the intruder(s) from the eyes of the sysadmin. But the damage is already
>>done.
>
>His comment is that while login does not allow a remote root login with no
>password, ftp does allow a root login with no password. This is what he
>is calling the bug in ftpd.  It certainly is an inconsistancy between
>the two.
>
>It is also true that this bug is minor compared to the bug which allowed
>a root user to be entered into passwd without a password.

In a way it is an inconsistancy, but in another way it isn't.  The linux
login program has been hacked (if you will) to pay attention to a file
called /etc/securetty (may vary from dstrib to distrib).  Wu-ftpd could
not care less about this file, since ftp doesn't open a tty.

It's not a bug, it's a feature. :)

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