[Gllug] A lesson in root

[james at soon.co.uk]

Hi 

This reminds me of the time I accidentally hit the return key when I had only typed:

chmod –R 777 /

While trying to change permissions on a file when logged in as root. My Debian system became unusable, needless to say I had no back-up so I ended up reinstalling from scratch :(

James

-----Original Message-----
>From : Harry Jackson <postituk at yahoo.com>
To : gllug at linux.co.uk
Date : 23 July 2002 16:58:30
Subject : [Gllug] A lesson in root
Never never type the following as root unless you have a linuxcare or
>bootable floppy etc nearby. Or you have another user that can modify
>the /etc/passwd file.
>
>$>chsh -s bash root
>
>Oh what a joy that was. Luckily the linuxcare cd received at a lonix
>meeting was handy. I even checked to see if I had been dumb enough to
>leave any suid files knocking around to avoid moving my cdrom from the
>other pc but alas the box did not have any I was capable of exploiting.
>
>
>Please note I was pleased I did not have any that I could exploit but
>it would have saved me getting out of my chair.
>
>Harry 
>
>
>
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