On Mon, 4 Dec 2017, Chris Murphy wrote: > >> === Root Account === >>> group. We will remove the root password creation spoke. >>> All Workstation installs will have no root password set by >>> default, as in Ubuntu. Having a root password is not >>> useful for nontechnical users, and it is confusing to ask >>> users to create multiple passwords If this is a communication problem, why remove a password, just remove the spoke? Set _some_ DRP password, deterministically to an unguessible value, and save that value in a well-named file on the root volume # umask 077 # date +%s > /root-passwd.txt ; ( head -n 1 /root-passwd.txt ; \ lvdisplay | grep -i UUID | rev | awk {'print $1'} | rev | \ sort | head -n 1 ) | md5sum >> /root-passwd.txt ... and set the root password to the value of the last line of /root-passwd.txt An interested user may: 1. note it for a rainy day 2. change it to taste and rm the file A disinterested user may ignore it A person to whom the user takes a 'sick box' can use recovery media tool, loop moount a balky drive, and read the file to note the credential, and then boot down into a recovery mode with the needed credential > Also, for any kind of early boot troubleshooting even once a user is > created, systemd emergency and rescue targets only accept root user > login. If root user is disabled, it's impossible to do such early boot > troubleshooting. So I think systemd needs a way to accept an admin > user (wheel group) as an alternative login rather than only root. I really dislike adding a new 'secret way to crack into a box' and the complexity it would add to systemd, and auditting the same, a lot more than I dislike leaving a cleartext file with a complex password. And of course this does not come anywhere a secured grub bootloader discussion, nor LUKS, and clevis and tang ;) -- Russ herrold _______________________________________________ devel mailing list -- devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to devel-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx