[techtalk] Fw: [grrltalk] question about remote root access

[Wendt,Andrew]

On Fri, 15 Oct 1999, you wrote:

>> I got a question and since I've dug around all morning with no answer, I
>> figured I'd ask you folks. :-)
>>
>> I guess I've figured out that by default, Redhat (and SGI 1.1), will not
>let
>> you log in as root by telnetting into the system.  How do you turn this
>off?
>> I know we can just create a 'guest' account and then have folks su into
>> root, but it would be more convenient if we could just login directly.  I
>> think it has something to do with the /etc/securetty file, but I"m not
>sure
>> how to edit it to allow it.

My system (running SuSE 6.0) has a /etc/login.defs file. In it there's a
section:

# If defined, either full pathname of a file containing device names or
# a ":" delimited list of device names.  Root logins will be allowed only
# upon these devices.
# If you comment out the CONSOLE line completely, root login is possible
# from anywhere.
#
CONSOLE         /etc/securetty
CONSOLE tty1:tty2:tty3:tty4:tty5:tty6:tty7:tty8

If your system is also set up like this, you could just place # signs at the
start of any lines that say CONSOLE and save the file.

TTFN

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