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Can't Log in as 'root' via telnet

From liberty on Tue, 18 Jan 2000

hi ; !

I can t make a "root" login from a computer to the linux computer with telnet , but I can make it with another name user , and after i can make "su" command .... do you know this problem or security,? thanks

That's the way it's supposed to work. The normal login services check for a file named /etc/securetty and will refuse to accept a direct root login from any terminal/device that is not listed there.

Depending on the exact distribution and version it may be possible to simply rename that file if you insist on over-riding this policy and allowing root logins from anywhere. In other cases you might have to edit one or more of the "service" files under /etc/pam.d/ to remove the lines that refer to the PAM securetty module.

In general it is better to accept this policy and use 'su' Indeed it is even better to disable telnet and replace it with 'ssh' (which generally doesn't impose this restriction, though it can be configured to do so).

Copyright © 2000, James T. Dennis
Published in The Linux Gazette Issue 50 February 2000

HTML transformation by Heather Stern of Starshine Technical Services, http://www.starshine.org/

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