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SubjectRe: Username "root" unique?
On Sun, 15 Nov 1998 jens@pinguin.conetix.de wrote:

> Hi,
>
> how would a Linux system react if I changed "root" to something else
> (preferably "bofh" :), but kept the UID/GID the same?
>
> I.e. do all the tools and right mechanisms rely on UID/GID or on the
> /etc/passwd|shadow user NAME?
>
> I don't want to lock myself out ... =;)

Well, I know one person (at least) on this list who has "root" as a normal
user account (UID != 0), so I presume he uses something else for his
superuser account. He said he did this because "root@somedomain"
addresses are ignored by some address harvesting software, and also to
screw with the minds of anyone trying to crack his system ;-)

Most sane utilities that care should be checking some variation on
"getuid()==0" or "geteuid()==0", and the kernel couldn't care less about
names, only UID's (and more recently, capabilities).

If you want to try it out without diving in head-long, there's no reason
you can't have both "root" and "bofh" in /etc/passwd, both with UID 0.

Adam
--
You crucify all honesty \\Adam D. Bradley artdodge@cs.bu.edu
No signs you see do you believe \\Boston University Computer Science
And all your words just twist and turn\\ Grad Student and Linux Hacker
Reviving just to crash and burn \\ <><
---------> Why can't you listen as love screams everywhere? <--------


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