Very Computer

Hi,

I have got two computers in my room, one running windows, and the other one
with debian linux. If I telnet to the debian machine from the windows
machine, I can logon as a normal user, but I can't logon as root. Why not ?
How can I solve this ? I want to logon as root so that I don't need to
unplug/replug my monitor each time, since I only have one monitor for two
computers.

BTW should I switch off the monitor before unpluging it from the graphics
card ? I know it's usally bad to handle "live" cables, but it's also not
very good to switch on and off monitors...

Alok.

Hello Alok,

do a "su -" on the Linux Box, so you would get root.
This is a security-adjustment, because Telnet transport passwords as
cleartext over the network.
The best you can do is deinstall telnetd and install sshd (Secure Shell
Daemon).
At home you could risk to allow root-login per sshd or telnet, too.

Quote:

> BTW should I switch off the monitor before unpluging it from the graphics
> card ? I know it's usally bad to handle "live" cables, but it's also not
> very good to switch on and off monitors...

good question, I think this method is more dangerous for VGA-card than
the monitor. But if no short circuit happened this should go...

Quote:

> Alok.

greetings

Michael

On Tue, 15 Jan 2002 20:07:13 +0100, Michael Wandinger

Telnet transports everything clear text, so doing 'su' after the fact is
still going to give anyone sniffing the password (not to mention a valid
user account to 'su' from). SSH is the way.

Unless... he's talking about telnetting between 2 machines on a home
network behind a firewall with telnet blocked off on the external interface,
then there's no problem. Just at pts/1 to the top of the /etc/securetty
file, and telnetd will happily log you in directly as root.

Marc

Quote:> do a "su -" on the Linux Box, so you would get root.
> This is a security-adjustment, because Telnet transport passwords as
> cleartext over the network.
> The best you can do is deinstall telnetd and install sshd (Secure Shell
> Daemon).
> At home you could risk to allow root-login per sshd or telnet, too.

Ok, I noticed that su was working (that's how I got my work done today).
Is sshd as simple to use as telnet ? I mean from a users point of view does
it
work the same way ? It means that I need an ssh client on the windows
machine right ? I have got
cygwin, so I guess ssh should work.

Quote:> > BTW should I switch off the monitor before unpluging it from the
graphics
> > card ? I know it's usally bad to handle "live" cables, but it's also not
> > very good to switch on and off monitors...

> good question, I think this method is more dangerous for VGA-card than
> the monitor. But if no short circuit happened this should go...

Thanks for your help & time,
Alok.

Right now I don't have a firewall yet, but I'm mainly using a home network.
I'll soon install the firewall.

Alok.

On Tue, 15 Jan 2002 21:55:49 +0100,

Quote:>> do a "su -" on the Linux Box, so you would get root. This is
>> a security-adjustment, because Telnet transport passwords as
>> cleartext over the network. The best you can do is deinstall
>> telnetd and install sshd (Secure Shell Daemon). At home you
>> could risk to allow root-login per sshd or telnet, too.

> Ok, I noticed that su was working (that's how I got my work
> done today). Is sshd as simple to use as telnet ? I mean from a
> users point of view does it work the same way ? It means that
> I need an ssh client on the windows machine right ? I have got
> cygwin, so I guess ssh should work.

ssh works sort of like telnet, and has a lot more features, like being
able to encrypt other bitstreams like pop3, or X11 via tunnels. I use
the putty ssh client on windows when I have to do anything with windows.
it works ok. Almost as well as secpanel (a gui front end to ssh)

--
Jim Richardson
        Anarchist, pagan and proud of it
www.eskimo.com/~warlock
        Linux, because life's too short for a buggy OS.