🚀 go-pugleaf

Angelika Byczkowski wrote:
> I'm hoping someone can help me recover root access to an old 4.0D
> Tru64 system running on an Alpha2100.  It has been running for 2 years
> without administrative attention after being set up by a previous
> admin and now we have lost the root password.
> 
> We booted the system from a "firmware upgrade" CD, mounted the root
> disk and edited the /mnt/etc/passwd file to clear the root password. 
> Now the passwd file must be converted to a hashed database to be used
> for authentication.  I've seen suggestions to use mkpasswd,
> "/usr/tcb/bin/convuser -ai <userid>", or vipw.  However, if we are not
> running from the root disk (since we've booted from the CD), the
> conversion program won't work since it would be looking at the wrong
> passwd file and putting the resulting data in the wrong place.
> 
> We cannot simply reinstall because the installation media was lost
> long ago.  All we have is physical access, a bootable CD, and regular
> user access.
> 
> I would be very grateful for any ideas how we could recover root
> access to this system.
> 
> -Angelika
> Unix System Administrator
> Silicon Image

If I where in you shoe, I would take out the harddrive and place it in 
anouther computer (with Windows or Linux). Copy the hash string out of 
the password file and crack it using an until like MDcrack 
(http://membres.lycos.fr/mdcrack/)....

Some MD5 hashes to try:
5D5C2596F3AA722CDD356B363FB795D2  == AbCde
7B93D4C74A389FA6BAAA6D4931E3552E  == x8jq
C2AE5CB2426D96ED19A50B0B7D7C8E11  == 7574
A0204A2477BFDC6E5F1BAECE52C0BC05  == SaMpLE
F5A2496CF66CB8CFFE66CB1B27D7DEDE  == SAMPLE

Remember it's MD5 or MD4 that have been the HASH algorithem so it's easy 
toy work on...

Angelika Byczkowski wrote:
> I'm hoping someone can help me recover root access to an old 4.0D
> Tru64 system running on an Alpha2100.  It has been running for 2 years
> without administrative attention after being set up by a previous
> admin and now we have lost the root password.
> 
> We booted the system from a "firmware upgrade" CD, mounted the root
> disk and edited the /mnt/etc/passwd file to clear the root password. 
> Now the passwd file must be converted to a hashed database to be used
> for authentication.  I've seen suggestions to use mkpasswd,
> "/usr/tcb/bin/convuser -ai <userid>", or vipw.  However, if we are not
> running from the root disk (since we've booted from the CD), the
> conversion program won't work since it would be looking at the wrong
> passwd file and putting the resulting data in the wrong place.
> 
> We cannot simply reinstall because the installation media was lost
> long ago.  All we have is physical access, a bootable CD, and regular
> user access.
> 
> I would be very grateful for any ideas how we could recover root
> access to this system.
> 
> -Angelika
> Unix System Administrator
> Silicon Image

if you boot single user then you can run mkpasswd.  although i dont 
think you need to...  simply clear out the password and reboot.  or 
better yet, run "passwd root".

i've changed root passwords on *many* OSF/1 and Tru64 boxen and it was 
painfully easy.


-- 

Marco Benton - BOFH, BSMFH
Network Consultant

BOFH excuse #305: The cause of the problem is: CPU-angle has to be 
adjusted because of vibrations coming from the nearby road

Christoffer Hjortlund Heder wrote:

> If I where in you shoe, I would take out the harddrive and place it in 
> anouther computer (with Windows or Linux). Copy the hash string out of 
> the password file and crack it using an until like MDcrack 
> (http://membres.lycos.fr/mdcrack/)....
> 
> Some MD5 hashes to try:
> 5D5C2596F3AA722CDD356B363FB795D2  == AbCde
> 7B93D4C74A389FA6BAAA6D4931E3552E  == x8jq
> C2AE5CB2426D96ED19A50B0B7D7C8E11  == 7574
> A0204A2477BFDC6E5F1BAECE52C0BC05  == SaMpLE
> F5A2496CF66CB8CFFE66CB1B27D7DEDE  == SAMPLE
> 
> Remember it's MD5 or MD4 that have been the HASH algorithem so it's easy 
> toy work on...

it'll be kinda hard to mount a BSD partition disk on a Windoze box.  and 
Linux would need OSF partition support to mount it.

-- 

Marco Benton - BOFH, BSMFH
Network Consultant

BOFH excuse #336: The cause of the problem is: the butane lighter causes 
the pincushioning

On 3 Nov 2004 16:40:08 -0800
angelika.bz@gmail.com (Angelika Byczkowski) wrote:

> I've seen suggestions to use mkpasswd,
> "/usr/tcb/bin/convuser -ai <userid>", or vipw.  However, if we are not
> running from the root disk (since we've booted from the CD), the
> conversion program won't work since it would be looking at the wrong
> passwd file and putting the resulting data in the wrong place.

If you need to run a program that expects its files to
be in a specific location, use chroot. This is especially
easy when the directory you chroot to is the root of a
running system, because all the necessary binaries and
libraries are already in the appropriate locations (assunming
your root FS is mounted on /mnt):

# chroot /mnt /bin/ksh

Now you can run convuser or vipw to your heart's content.

Take care,

-- 
Stefaan
-- 
"What is stated clearly conceives easily."  -- Inspired sales droid

Stefaan A Eeckels <tengo@DELETEMEecc.lu> wrote in message news:<20041104091036.6723cec4.tengo@DELETEMEecc.lu>...
> On 3 Nov 2004 16:40:08 -0800
> angelika.bz@gmail.com (Angelika Byczkowski) wrote:
> 
> > I've seen suggestions to use mkpasswd,
> > "/usr/tcb/bin/convuser -ai <userid>", or vipw.  However, if we are not
> > running from the root disk (since we've booted from the CD), the
> > conversion program won't work since it would be looking at the wrong
> > passwd file and putting the resulting data in the wrong place.
> 
> If you need to run a program that expects its files to
> be in a specific location, use chroot. This is especially
> easy when the directory you chroot to is the root of a
> running system, because all the necessary binaries and
> libraries are already in the appropriate locations (assunming
> your root FS is mounted on /mnt):
> 
> # chroot /mnt /bin/ksh
> 
> Now you can run convuser or vipw to your heart's content.

> 
> Take care,
> 
> -- 
> Stefaan

Thank you so much!  This indeed will do the trick to create the hashed
passwd files I was missing.

Angelika Byczkowski wrote:
> Stefaan A Eeckels <tengo@DELETEMEecc.lu> wrote in message news:<20041104091036.6723cec4.tengo@DELETEMEecc.lu>...
> 
>>On 3 Nov 2004 16:40:08 -0800
>>angelika.bz@gmail.com (Angelika Byczkowski) wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I've seen suggestions to use mkpasswd,
>>>"/usr/tcb/bin/convuser -ai <userid>", or vipw.  However, if we are not
>>>running from the root disk (since we've booted from the CD), the
>>>conversion program won't work since it would be looking at the wrong
>>>passwd file and putting the resulting data in the wrong place.
>>
>>If you need to run a program that expects its files to
>>be in a specific location, use chroot. This is especially
>>easy when the directory you chroot to is the root of a
>>running system, because all the necessary binaries and
>>libraries are already in the appropriate locations (assunming
>>your root FS is mounted on /mnt):
>>
>># chroot /mnt /bin/ksh
>>
>>Now you can run convuser or vipw to your heart's content.
> 
> 
>>Take care,
>>
>>-- 
>>Stefaan
> 
> 
> Thank you so much!  This indeed will do the trick to create the hashed
> passwd files I was missing.
You could also just remove the password.pag and password.dir files in 
/etc (I think that's what they were called).  The system will use the 
/etc/password flat file as is.  Also, are we sure that the system isn't 
running enchanced security?  If so then the passwords are in the the 
Trusted Computing Base.  You would need to use the /usr/tcb/bin/edauth 
command in that case.

Mario