my son hacked my admin user password

[rontopia]

hi all

1 of the things that I don't care for in Ubuntu is the lack of a traditional root password for the root user. here's why, my very clever son found this way around my admin user password and has installed software that I didn't want on the computer. when I asked him how he did it this is what he said


I booted it in recovery mode and them selected netroot mode and then typed 'passwd ronm' and it asked of for a new password.

ronm is the admin. He has his own account. How do I stop him from doing this?

[MG&TL]

A root password won't stop that. You could equally set the root password from recovery mode.

If your son has physical access to the box, and he's bright enough to do that, there's not a lot on the actual software side to stop him. I'd respectfully suggest a parental approach instead.

Opinion: if your son is good with computers, this is to be encouraged! Talk to him about it, there's a lot of constructive, educational fun to be had with computers, rather than just 'hacking' them.

[Cheesemill]

As the old saying goes, physical access = root access.

Even if you lock down recovery mode there is nothing to stop him booting from a Live CD and changing the password from that.

[haqking]

The only thing you can do is get him to teach you Linux

Peace

[SeijiSensei]

Sometimes you can set a password in the BIOS that must be entered before the machine will boot.

Even if you set a traditional root password, that would not have stopped him from booting into recovery mode and changing that one.

[Mopar1973Man]

I think its cool that your son had out smarted you.

But I'm sure the guys here are right if he's got physical access to the computer he's going to figure out a way of hacking the computer.

[Bandit]

The only thing you can do is get him to teach you Linux

Peace

LOL This..

Props to the kid...

[CharlesA]

A root password won't stop that. You could equally set the root password from recovery mode.

If your son has physical access to the box, and he's bright enough to do that, there's not a lot on the actual software side to stop him. I'd respectfully suggest a parental approach instead.

Opinion: if your son is good with computers, this is to be encouraged! Talk to him about it, there's a lot of constructive, educational fun to be had with computers, rather than just 'hacking' them.

This is the best solution (at least IMHO). BIOS password is another idea, but those are fairly easy to get around too.

[alphaamanitin]

Yeah BIOS password can often be defeated by removing the CMOS battery if I recall correctly?

AlphaA

[CharlesA]

Yeah BIOS password can often be defeated by removing the CMOS battery if I recall correctly?

AlphaA

At least for desktops. I have heard conflicting reports about laptops.